20 THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WORKING PLANS 



SECTION TWO 



FOREST SURVEY 



By forest survey is understood the gathering and tabula- 

 tion of all data in regard to forest lands, including plane and 

 topographic surveying, mapping, timber estimates, forest 

 descriptions, grazing data and land classification, type and site 

 determination, involving all the work of every kind (including 

 the construction of volume, growth and yield tables) neces- 

 sary for the making of the working plan.* 



Here again forest organization touches upon the domain 

 of forest mensuration and, in part, of engineering. Hence only 

 the salient points affecting the working plan will be treated. 



Preliminary Work 



Before the field work is begun, all available data should be 

 gathered from the records, along the following lines: 



1. Area and boundaries of forest. 



2. Best existing estimates of timber. 



3. Approximate distribution of species. 



4. Salient topographic features. 



5. Past cuttings and their results; stumpage prices. 



6. Classes of material utilized; prices obtained; market con- 



ditions. 



7. Previous working plan or previous silvical studies; vol- 



ume, growth, or yield tables. 



8. Best maps available. 



Armed with these data, the forest organizer should then 

 make a preliminary trip over the forest so as to gain a general 

 familiarity therewith and the better to formulate his plan of 



* Forest surveys may be partial or complete, more or less intensive or exten- 

 sive. A preliminary, extensive forest survey is often called a reconnaissance. 

 This term may be applied to include one or more of the items constituting a com- 

 plete forest survey. The term " intensive reconnaissance " is essentially con- 

 tradictory in its component parts. 



