1076 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



operations, of woods foremen to superintend the logging, 

 and of inspectors to secure close utilization of the tree. 

 There are many openings along these lines, as well as in 

 the milling, manufacturing, and selling end of the busi- 

 ness, but none of these is forestry, however essential to 

 forestry these operations are. When the lumberman, as 

 a land owner, adopts the policy of reproduction and 

 growth of trees, and sets out to retain indefinitely the 

 ownership of cutover land for the possible future reve- 

 nue obtainable from such management, then the for- 

 ester will find an opportunity to practice his true voca- 

 tion as manager of such tracts. His education as a 

 forester may fit him meanwhile for useful employment 

 along these kindred lines. In other words, the character 

 of land ownership and the purpose of the owners deter- 

 mine whether the work of the forester constitutes the 

 practice of his vocation or of some other line associated 

 with lumbering or manufacturing. The men who worked 

 in the French forests with the forestry regiments can 

 bear witness to the truth of this statement. For over 

 there, about half of the forested areas are publicly 

 owned, and on the rest, the private owners have prac- 

 ticed forestry for decades, even for centuries ; otherwise 

 there would be no French forests ! Every acre of these 

 forests, no matter how owned, has been produced direct- 

 ly by the art of the forester; and the French forests 

 saved France as truly as did the American army. 



In America, due directly to our superabundance of 

 virgin timber, private owners, as a class, could not afford 

 and did not care to undertake the expense of producing 

 timber ; the competition with virgin forests prevented it. 

 So it has come about that forestry, and employment for 

 foresters as such, has developed principally on the 

 National forests under the United States Forest Service, 

 which controls 155 million acres of public lands set 

 aside for timber production. The Forest Service employs 

 over 2,500 forest rangers and officials of higher grade. 

 At present, the larger number of men is taken into the 

 Service as rangers after their passing an examination 

 to secure Civil Service rating. This examination is given 

 annually, in the fall, and is based upon familiarity with 

 certain essentials of the work of a ranger, such as com- 

 pass surveying, handling small timber sales, the adminis- 

 tration of grazing for forest users, fire fighting, trail or 

 road building, packing supplies, and making out reports. 

 Western experience counts for much, and before taking 

 the examination it is customary for an applicant to seek 

 a position as forest guard, fire lookout, or "temporary" 

 ranger during the season preceding the examination. 

 Applications for such employment may be made to the 

 District Foresters at San Francisco, California; Port- 

 land, Oregon ; Missoula, Montana ; Ogden, Utah ; Denver, 

 Colorado, or Albuquerque, New Mexico. These positions 

 pay a salary of $1,100, increasing by promotion to a 

 maximum of $1,500. Many rangers have only a common- 

 school education, but the opportunity for advancement 

 beyond this grade is largely determined, first, by the 

 amount of additional education possessed by the rangers, 

 ranked in order as graduates of high school, college, or 



technical school of forestry; second, by their character 

 and ability to master the work, take responsibility, exer- 

 cise initiative, and become good executives. The second 

 method of entrance into the Forest Service is by passing 

 a highly technical examination for the Civil Service grade 

 of Forest Assistant. This requires a complete course of 

 training at a technical school of forestry, equivalent to a 

 4-year college course with one year of post-graduate 

 work. The Forest Assistant is frequently assigned to 

 ranger work on entering the Service. The benefits of 

 entering the Service as Forest Assistant lie largely in the 

 educational training obtained previous to employment. 

 Forest Assistants are also given work in research at 

 Forest Experiment Stations, in timber-sale administra- 

 tion, timber estimating, grazing inspection, and general 

 administrative work. If they show adaptability and char- 

 acter, they, as well as rangers, may become Forest Super- 

 visors at salaries from $1,800 to $2,400, or eventually may 

 obtain higher executive positions paying up to $3,600 in 

 the District Offices or at Washington. 



Certain States, as New York and Pennsylvania, which 

 own large areas of land set aside as State forests, employ 

 foresters. Pennsylvania educates her own State foresters 

 at the Forest Academy of Mont Alto. New York secures 

 hers by Civil Service examination in technical forestry. 

 The employment of foresters by owners of private 

 lands will steadily increase from now on as land owners 

 begin to realize that non-agricultural land can be made 

 to yield an income in no other way. Paper companies, 

 with millions invested in plants, are apt to desire a perma- 

 nent output from their spruce lands, and they employ 

 foresters to secure this end. Mining companies in regions 

 where the supply of virgin timber is nearing exhaustion 

 are taking an interest in forestry and foresters. Rail- 

 road corporations, driven to produce tie timber locally, 

 are employing foresters to attain this object. Owners 

 of large estates composed of woodland, and institutions 

 with forest lands are realizing the need of employing 

 foresters properly to care for their properties. 



A host of small land owners exists such as farmers or 

 owners of small estates, who can and should practice 

 forestry on woodlots and waste places. These tracts are 

 not large enough to justify employing a trained for- 

 ester. To supply the wants of these owners, States have 

 established forestry departments for public education in 

 forestry, as well as to secure fire protection on forest 

 lands. This educational work gives employment to a 

 few foresters who have special gifts for public work, or 

 who are needed for forest "extension" work among land 

 owners. In addition, forest rangers are employed to 

 specialize on fire patrol and prevention. 



Finally, come the forest schools, whose business is to 

 train and educate the foresters. Schools exist for the 

 training of forest rangers and foremen of forest estates, 

 which usually give a one-year course, mostly in the prac- 

 tical work of a ranger, such as that of fire suppression, 

 tree planting, marking timber for cutting, surveying, and 

 of other lines. A still larger number of college schools 

 of forestry have been established. The recognized stand- 



