472 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Photograph by A. S. Hitchcook 



VIEW OF SlTKA AND SURROUNDING FOREST COVERED SLOPES. 



est Service, has been particularly effi- 

 cient and satisfactory. There have been 

 none of the long delays in rendering de- 

 cisions on matters in dispute that have 

 caused criticism of other departments. 

 Practically all questions relative to the 

 forests have been settled on the ground 

 by the officials in charge, and when it 

 has been necessary to refer to headquar- 

 ters in Washington, replies have been 

 received in about the same time they 

 could be sent to national forests in Ore- 

 gon and Washington. 



Hence many people do not believe 

 that it would be possible for such a De- 

 velopment Board as Secretary Lane 

 proposes, to manage the forests of 

 Alaska in as able and as efficient a man- 

 ner as they are being handled at the 

 present time by the well-trained men of 

 the Forest Service. Certain coopera- 

 tion between the Forest Service, still in 

 control of the administration of these 

 Alaskan forests, and such a Develop- 

 ment Board, if one is created, would 

 undoubtedly be valuable and altogether 

 satisfactory, but there is likely to be 

 decided opposition in the Senate and 



House by the friends of forestry to 

 any bills eliminating the Forest Serv- 

 ice from administrative control of the 

 forests of Alaska. 



TIED BY RED TAPE 



It is pointed out in Secretary Lane's 

 report that at present each of at 

 least a score of government bureaus 

 in Washington, divided among the vari- 

 ous departments, have something to 

 do with the government of Alaska, and 

 that there is a vast amount of red tape 

 and circumlocution in the administra- 

 tion of public affairs under this system. 

 Instances are given in the report of de- 

 lays of several years in the handling of 

 uncomplicated land and other matters 

 which should have been promptly dis- 

 posed of. 



"Practically all the lands and natural 

 resources of Alaska," says the Secre- 

 tary, "are still the property of the 

 United States. Until now, we have 

 only protected these riches against 

 monopoly and waste, and the most cum- 

 bersome departmental machinery has 

 sufficed. Heretofore we have done lit- 





