-50 SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



SECONDARY DUTIES OP FOREST SERVICE. 



The duties of the forest service described above, in addition to those 

 •of protection and administration, should consist in opening lines of com- 

 munication through the reserves, and in preparing careful maps and 

 descriptions of the timber and of lines of transportation. A thorough 

 knowledge of the local markets should also be acquired. Methods and 

 tools for fighting fires have not yet been perfected, and as they must 

 vary with the differences of the forest in each reserve they should early 

 claim the attention of the forest officers. 



THE WORK OF ORGANIZATION. 



If effect is to be given to the recommendations contained in this 

 report it is of great importance that the officer charged with their 

 •execution should be empowered to begin the work of organization with- 

 out delay. The selection of suitable subordinate officers will be a 

 matter of considerable time and difficulty, and they should have oppor- 

 tunity to become familiar with their routine duties before active field 

 work begins. The system of pasturage proposed by Mr. Coville can not 

 be applied during the coming summer unless steps to that end are 

 taken this winter. Finally, specific administrative details, such as 

 regulations for the use and protection of the reserves under this plan, 

 and form for permits and reports, matters which can not properly find a 

 place in this report, will require painstaking consideration. Such 

 facts as these, taken together with the pressing necessity for the imme- 

 'diate protection of the reserves and the enforcement of the law and the 

 regulations, make it plain that action can not long be delayed if note- 

 ■^worthy progress in the right treatment of the reserves is to be made 

 'during the coming year. The fact of such progress, or its absence, 

 will weigh heavily with the Western people for or against the reserva- 

 ttion policy. Timely and efficient action in Washington and in the field 

 ■during the next year will strengthen and solidify popular feeling in 

 favor of the reserves as powerfully as their absence will disappoint and 

 reduoe it. 



III. THE FOREST RESERVES IN DETAIL. 



BIG HORN FOREST RESERVE. 



SUMMARY. 

 ^Situation : Northern Wyoming. Acres. 



Area within present lines 1 127 680 



Adverse holdings not known. total area. 



Area of forest land /^\ 95 



Area marked by fire (^\ 90 



Area badly burned (^\ rjQ 



■Revised lines can not be drawn without further study .and a map. 



Force recommended: One ranger, 4 forest guards, 25 fire watchers, after other more 

 pressing reserves have been supplied with men. 



■Sources of information : Report of F. E. Towne, special field assistant. United States 

 Geological Survey; statement by Henry Gannett, geographer, United States Geo- 

 logical Survey ; no personal examination. 



A broad high plateau, with a central granite crest, partly covered with forests of 

 lodge-pole pine. 



Fires have cleared about half of this reserve and are keeping it free from trees. 



All the water ilowing east is used for irrigation, and a considerable part of that 

 "which flows west. 



