4 MISC. PUBLICATION 11, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURB 



tlie other as to the practicability of its application. No matter how 

 clear the vision of the maker of the plan, no matter how logical and 

 technicuily sound are his prescriptions, his ])hin will remain only a 

 literary etl'ort if it can not be put into action in the woods through 

 the meilium of the lumberman's ax and saw. 



BUSINESS JUDGMENT MUST ENTER 



Nor should the forester who is planning his timber management 

 underestimate the extent to which sound business judgment must 

 enter into and color his findings. The harvesting of the mature crop 

 IS not solely a silvicultural operation, it is a commercial transaction 

 iS well. Here he enters the commercial field and must plan his 

 actions with an understanding of the customs and the rules of the 

 business world. In the allocation of his cut to specific areas and to 

 certain periods of time it is not only his opportunity, but his respon- 

 sibility, to exercise a high quality of salesmanship in order that he 

 may get for his product its full value in dollars and cents, and in 

 order that he may bring the weight of legitimate business strategy 

 to bear on the buyer to take the forest's offerings as budgeted. 



WHEN NEEDED 



It is not a difficult matter to decide when a management plan is 

 needed for a given working circle; the decision is based wholly on 

 common sense. In general, it might be said that a plan is not needed 

 unless and until it is possible to put the prescriptions of a plan into 

 action. There are some exceptions to this rule of thumb but not 

 many. A working circle remote in location and time from active 

 demand by lumbermen rarely needs a management plan. One whose 

 resources are being used to such a small extent that the drain upon it 

 does not represent anything approaching the sustained yield possi- 

 bility will need a management plan only when the nature of the 

 business that does exist threatens to complicate the situation for 

 future utilization, or when the situation seems ripe to try for a much 

 larger business. It goes without saying that a management plan is 

 needed in all working circles that are shortly to be opened up for 

 utilization on a scale commensurate with their resources and 

 [)Ossibilities. 



WHO SHOULD MAKE THEM 



Naturally, since a management ])lan is a serious commitment to a 

 lelinite line of action over a considerable length of time, it should 

 he made by the man most familiar with all angles of the situation. In 

 the Forest Service this is usually the forest suj^ervisor. It is vital 

 to the success of a plan that it represent something that can be done. 

 No other man is as well equipped to contribute the element of prac- 

 ticability as the supervisor; tor he knows the limitations imposed 

 Hud the opportunities afforded, on the one hand by the calls on the 

 rime of his force and on their training and capacity for timber work, 

 mil on the other by the character, needs, and tendencies of the people 

 ind in<lustries that the forest is to serve and that must be depended 

 'j|)on for a market. 



While, of course, he will employ members of his force and such 

 >ther assistance as he needs or can get in making an inventory and 



