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I AMERICAN FORESTRY I 



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VOL. XXVI 



DECEMBER, 1920 



IIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1III 



EDITORIAL 



NO, 324 



CONGRESS AND FOREST SERVICE APPROPRIATIONS 



/~\NE of the important duties of the session of Con- 

 ^-^ gress now assembling will be the passage of the 

 annual appropriation bills for the various executive de- 

 partments of the Government. American Forestry 

 would like to bespeak its liberal treatment of the Forest 

 Service in general and in four directions in particular. 

 These are increased salaries, fire protection, acquisition 

 of forest lands and research. 



During the last few years the integrity of the Forest 

 Service, as of many other Government organizations, 

 has been seriously threatened by the impossibility of 

 paying adequate salaries to the bulk of its employes. 

 This is due primarily to the fact that most of the force 

 is on what is known as the "statutory roll." The salary 

 for each position on this roll is fixed by Congress, or in 

 other words by statute; and Congress has not seeen fit 

 to make any material changes in these salaries in spite 

 of the greatly increased cost of living. Lack of funds 

 has also to a considerable extent prevented the merited 

 promotion of many of those whose salaries are set by 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, and who are on the so- 

 called "miscellaneous roll." As a result of this situa- 

 tion many of the ablest and most experienced men 

 and women have left and are leaving the Service, 

 and an unfortunate but inevitable feeling of unrest has 

 developed among those who remain. Pending the pas- 

 sage by Congress of a comprehensive reclassification 

 measure, three things are needed to bring immediate 

 relief: (1) material increases in statutory roll salaries; 

 (2) removal of the present maximum limit of $4,500 for 

 miscellaneous roll salaries, and (3) appropriation of 

 adequate funds to make possible the promotion by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture of those on this roll. 



Additional funds for forest fire protection are also 

 urgently needed. Fire constitutes by far the most serious 

 menace to the perpetuation of the forests of the country 

 and its control is an essential prerequisite to the practice 

 of forestry. During the past year, 27,000 reported fires 

 burned over 8,500,000 acres, to say nothing of the large 

 additional area for which no records are available. 

 Present attempts at control are wholly inadequate, and 

 the current appropriation of $125,000 for Federal co- 

 operation in the protection of State and private lands is 

 insufficient to enable the Government to bear its fair 



share of the burden. This should be increased to at least 

 the $1,000,000 requested, and the present restriction re- 

 quiring the expenditure of the funds on the watersheds of 

 navigable streams removed. 



The program for the acquisition of forest lands by 

 the Federal Government which was inaugurated nearly 

 ten years ago by the passage of the so-called Weeks 

 Law, should be revivified by the renewal of adequate ap- 

 propriations for the purpose. It is unfortunate that this 

 work, which has already yielded tangible and decidedly 

 worth while results, should have been allowed to lapse 

 and highly important that it should be resumed at the 

 earliest opportunity, with the removal of the present limi- 

 tation that all purchases must be on the watersheds of 

 navigable streams. In view of the magnitude of the in- 

 terests involved on annual appropriation of $2,000,000, is 

 certainly a modest enough sum to be devoted to this 

 purpose. 



These and other Forest Service activities should be ac- 

 companied by the development of a comprehensive pro- 

 gram of forest research. In order to handle our forests 

 and their products effectively, we need to know far more 

 than we now do as to the best methods of forest produc- 

 tion and of forest and wood utilization. Such knowl- 

 edge can be obtained only by properly manned and 

 equipped laboratories and experiment stations. The 

 Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, the 

 value of whose work has been amply demonstrated, can- 

 not cover its field either fully or adequately with a yearly 

 appropriation of less than $500,000. A similar amount 

 is needed for investigation of the wide variety and in- 

 finite number of problems involved in determining the 

 best methods of growing, reproducing and otherwise 

 managing our forests, and for studies in forest econom- 

 ics. American Forestry believes that there should be 

 a forest experiment station in each important forest 

 region in the country and hopes for rapid progress to- 

 ward this goal. 



The Forest Service is a business organization which 

 is comparable in many respects to the foremost private 

 concerns in the country and whose activities are even 

 more vital to the public welfare. May Congress increase 

 its effectiveness by providing for its finances in a busi- 

 ness-like way. 



