1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



279 



ad:\iinistration of the u. s. forest reserves. 



By Filibert Roth, 

 Chief of Division R, General Land Office. 



PART III. BUSINESS AFFAIRS. 



THE work done by the field force in 

 the U. S. Forest Reserves may be 

 divided into protective or patrol duty, 

 timber-work, and miscellaneous duties, 

 principally in connection with the con- 

 trol of grazing, the examinations of land 

 claims, and applications for privileges, 

 such as rights of way for railways, 

 wagon roads, canals, etc. 



Generally the patrol duty is still the 

 most important, and probably 75 per 

 cent of all the work belongs under this 

 head. 



As might be expected, the protective 

 work is directed chiefly against fire and 

 timber depredation or trespass. That 

 this work has borne fruit is f ulh' demon- 

 strated and quite generally acknowl- 

 edged. Hundreds of small fires, which 

 might in many cases have developed 

 into destructive forest fires, have been 

 extinguished in their beginning. Sim- 

 ilarly, a strict patrol, together with an 

 orderly system of disposing of timber, 

 has reduced timber depredations to a 

 marked degree. In certain mining dis- 

 tricts only a few years ago the mining 

 concerns largely supplied themselves 

 with fuel and timber by operating under 

 the mischievous law of 1S78, which al- 

 lows indiscriminate cutting on mineral 

 lands. At the same time, trespass cases, 

 ranging in amount from a few hundred 

 to many thousands of dollars, were mat- 

 ters of course and were met on every 

 hand. In these same districts all de- 

 mands are now supplied in a regular 

 way. The timber is purchased, and its 

 removal is carried on according to defi- 

 nite rules and plans. The claim that a 

 small band of a few hundred men, scat- 

 tered over such large areas, can accom- 

 plish little or no good has proven en- 

 tirely false, and there are thousands of 

 people ready to testify to the fact that 

 the expenditure of public funds on the 



reserve patrol has been a most successful 

 investment. 



During the first years of reserve ad- 

 ministration this work was naturally 

 of an experimental nature. Generally 

 each ranger was assigned to a particular 

 beat or district (usually manj- miles in 

 extent) and was left without further 

 surveillance than the superv'isor of the 

 reserve could accomplish. In the smaller 

 reserves and in districts where roads 

 and trails were abundant, this plan 

 worked fairl}' well ; but in the large re- 

 serves, where means of communication 

 were scant and poor and where rangers, 

 on this account, were sometimes all the 

 summer without the advice and assist- 

 ance of their superior, it was seriously 

 defective. Even faithful men require 

 encouragement and a certain amount of 

 recognition. For this reason the sys- 

 tem has been altered in the manner al- 

 luded to before. 



It is now expected that the force on 

 the reserves will be organized on the 

 following order : suppose, on a given 

 reserve, there are to be assigned during 

 the summer season 12 rangers of class 

 III, 4 of class II, and i of class I ; the 

 reserve will then be divided into 12 or- 

 dinary beats. Each of the 4 men of 

 class II will be given charge of three 

 such beats or men. Each of these will 

 perform rangerduty like the others, but 

 at the same time look after the men of 

 class III. They will be required to ride 

 with them and see that the}' cover their 

 territor}^ in the best manner. They 

 will also advise and instruct them and 

 in cases of importance accompany and 

 assist them. The ranger of class I, in 

 turn, will go from district to district, 

 look after the more important cases, es- 

 pecially matters of timber-cutting, etc., 

 and thus represent the supervisor when- 

 ever and wherever this officer cannot 



