2 MISC. PUBLICATION 11, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTUKE 



progress in developing metliods of management fitted to American 

 economic and silvicultural conditions. 



In this publication is presented a general exposition of one phase 

 only of forest management — the making of the plan, and that 

 mainly as it relates to the national forests. While the primary pur- 

 pose of the bulletin is to aid national forest officers who are charged 

 Avith the responsibility of making or carrying out management plans, 

 it is hoped that the treatment of the subject will be of interest to 

 foresters generally. 



MANAGEMENT PLANS IN GENERAL 



Timber is a long-time crop. To grow a stand of timber to mer- 

 chantable size from seed takes a century or more and requires the 

 work of a long succession of forest managers. It would be futile 

 for short-lived man to attem])t to grow a crop that outlives him by 

 so many decades if the progress of the project were left to the expe- 

 diency of the moment or to the whims of the successive individuals 

 in authority. While individual managers, each as his turn comes, 

 must accept full responsibility for the details of application, and 

 while there must be given to each man great leeway for the exercise 

 of judgment, initiative, and skill, the project can not be a success in 

 the end unless all hold in common the same vision and carry forward 

 thi'ough the successive stewardships the same purposes and policies. 



The complexity of the situation is easily appreciated when it is 

 realized that, nearly alwa3's in the national forests, the forester has 

 in tlie territory under his charge a dozen or more timber crops in all 

 stages of development from seedling to sawlogs, in all shades of con- 

 dition from thrifty to decadent, and all affected more or less by con- 

 flicting silvicultural needs and by inaccessibility, inferior species in 

 admixture, poor or fluctuating markets, insect depredations, and 

 fire losses. 



Without a definite plan it is virtually impossible for a succession of 

 foresters, no matter how well equipped they may be individually, 

 to manage intelligently and successrully over a long period of years 

 the timber resources of a forest region. On ever^ national forest all 

 of the more important phases of work are guided and controlled 

 through the use of plans and schedules. There are grazing plans, 

 whose purpose it is to bring about systematic and profitable use of the 

 forage; there are improvement plans, road plans, protection plans, 

 land-exchange plans, and work plans, all or which represent steps 

 toward .systematizing and coordinating the work of the service, to 

 the end that its effectivenoss may be increased and that continuity of 

 action, so essential in any large project, may result. 



A management plan, as the term is used in the Forest Service and 

 in this publication, concerns and is confined to the development and 

 the disposition of the timber crop, and differs from a working plan 

 in that it docs not cover, in planwisc fashion, forest planting, pro- 

 tection, grazing, improvement, and general administration. These 

 important phases of forest work are all taken into account in the 

 ])roparation of a management plan but only so far as they are 

 related to the treatment and marketing of the timber crop. 



