METHODS OF RECONNAISSANCE ON THE NATIONAL 



FORESTS. 



J. R. Bruff. 



It is the purpose of this article to give an idea of the 

 methods of reconnaissance on some of our National Forests. 

 The material was obtained from students, who had spent their 

 summers in this kind of work on seventeen forests in the six 

 different administrative districts. 



The object of carrying on reconnaissance work is to ob- 

 tain an idea of the condition of the forests with a view to 

 establishing a somewhat satisfactory basis for management. 

 The forests on which the work was done were mostly inac- 

 cessible places where timber sales were few and the timber 

 itself of such poor grade that it would scarcely pay, at pres- 

 ent, to overcome the difficulties of getting it out. Thus any 

 accurate valuation survey would be out of the question, so 

 an approximation is obtained by reconnaissance. 



The work was made to include not only an estimation of 

 the timber but also topographic and type maps and a general 

 description of the forest conditions. The timber estimates 

 were made on a small per cent of the area and from this the 

 volume for the entire area was computed. The areas on 

 which the timber was estimated were found to vary from as 

 low as one per cent of the entire area up to ten per cent, while 

 five percent was the most common. The forests on which ten 

 per cent of the area was estimated contained good timber 

 and the work was made accurate for use in timber sales. 

 Where less than ten percent was estimated the work was, 

 in most cases, too much of an approximation to be accepted 

 for timber sales. 



In carrying on this work, a crew of six to ten men was 

 sent out by each forest. The outfit for the crew was such 

 that camp could be easily moved from one locality to another 

 as the work progressed. In most cases it was possible to hire 

 a team and wagon to move camp, although several forest? 



