392 Prociisdings o? the 



exceed that of the government forests. Consequently, 

 the supply of timber for the future depends more 

 upon the treatment given to private forests than upon 

 the national forest reserves. For this reason it is of 

 the utmost importance to give practical advice and 

 assistance to private owners so that they may be able 

 to introduce conservative lumbering upon their own 

 lands. 



Third, the Forest Service is charged with the pro- 

 tection and administration of the national forests. 

 These forests at present cover an area of rather more 

 than 63,000,000 acres, and are slowly increasing. They 

 lie almost entirely upon high land at the headwaters 

 of streams in the Western States and Territories, and 

 are of vast importance to the irrigation and grazing 

 interests, as well as to the users of wood. They are 

 the key to the prosperity of the West. 



The administration of the forest reserves is based 

 upon the general principle repeatedly stated by Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt as the policy of his administration, that 

 the reserves are for use. They must be useful first of 

 all to the people of the neighborhood in which they 

 lie. Nothing stands in the way of such use so effect- 

 ively as the delays which are sometimes caused by 

 official red-tape, and especially by referring local ques- 

 tions for decision at Washington. Every question 

 which can be left to the local forest officers will here- 

 after be decided on the groimd, and the office at 

 Washington, as rapidly and completely as the new or- 

 ganization will permit, will be relieved from the con- 

 sideration of a multitude of details which have ham- 

 pered it hitherto. 



Not only are the forest reserves in general for use, 

 but ever)' individual resource is likewise to be used, 

 under the single restriction that it shall be so used as to 



