YOUR FOREST LAND 3 



Rockies, the scattered stunted white-bark and foxtail pine of timber line 

 in the Cascade and Sierra Ranges, the mountain meadows, the granite 

 peaks rising like treeless islands set within the forest. The lakes and streams, 

 too, are a part of the forest. Our national forests, then, are a kind of country 

 of their own sort, greatly varied, but distinct from developed farm lands and 

 from an urban environment. 



This forest domain is managed under a highly decentralized adminis- 

 trative scheme, with national headquarters in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, in Washington. It is an over-all system of management with each 

 forest officer, be he ranger, supervisor, or regional forester, singly responsible 

 for a large stretch of public land. In this system the multiple-use principle 

 of management is followed, each a-rea producing timber, water, forage, 

 wildlife, and other forest values, all at the same time, each resource being 

 developed according to its relative importance. Only a small part of the 

 national-forest area is devoted exclusively to one single purpose. 



Thus the ranger manages his ranger district in a forest. A ranger's 

 responsibilities in this day of fast and easier transportation may include 

 500,000 acres or better, a whole forest in itself. A forest supervisor manages 

 a forest or occasionally a group of forests like the four national forests of 

 Florida, with a gross area of 1,600,000 acres. Supervisor headquarters for 

 these four forests, all lying within the State's boundaries, is at Tallahassee, 

 Fla. Regional headquarters, supervising the national forests of 10 Southern 

 States and of Puerto Rico, is in Atlanta, Ga. 



There are 10 Forest Service regions, named by geographical divisions and 

 numbered from 1 to 10; but the 161 national forests are not numbered; they 

 bear names. And almost innumerable ranger stations, springs, camps, 

 pleasure grounds, and peaks within the forests bear names, native names 

 that announce our history and tradition: Big Prairie, Upper Ford, Sun 

 River, Poncha, Teton Pass, Crested Butte, Horsethief Canyon, Frying Pan, 

 Bear Ears, Sleepy Cat, Star Valley, Shoshone Canyon, Snake River, Skull 

 Valley, Tonto Basin, Thunder Mountain, Snake Creek, Joe's Valley, 

 Granddaddy Lakes, Goosenest, Hayfork, Wind River, Packwood, Deerfield, 

 Gunflint, Jackson Hole, Little Bayou, Dead Indian these are but a few of 



