CHAPTER VI 

 FOREST PRESERVATION (ADMINISTRATION) 



" For many a century nature fed them and dressed them every 

 day, working like a man, a loving, devoted, painstaking gardener." 



JOHN MUIR. 



THE administration of forest reserves includes a number 

 of separate features, the first of which is protection. This 

 means not only protection from the forest's greatest 

 enemy, fire, but also from its lesser enemies, such as in- 

 sects, disease and the destructive axe of the trespasser. 

 The forest should be not only protected but used. A 

 rational forest is first of all for use, and when timber is 

 matured, it should be cut and removed for the service of 

 man. The regulation of this cutting and the proper 

 disposal of refuse form an important part of the forester's 

 work. Provision must also be made for new trees to take 

 the place of those cut away. It may, and often does, go 

 further, and includes the reclothing of open stretches with 

 a growth of trees. All of these things must be attended 

 to, and they all mean work, which is always 'exacting and 

 often dangerous. Such work must be done thoroughly and 

 honestly, and no one need regard any of the positions in 

 connection with a forest reserve as a sinecure. Each office, 

 however, gives opportunity for necessary and valuable 

 public service. 



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