APPENDIX. 159 



4. Permanent improvements carried on by the Reserve force, such as 

 making surveys of land and timber, establishment and care of headquar- 

 ters and other similar improvements under the immediate care of the 

 Reserve force. 



In 'this connection it should be stated eraiihatically that Forest 

 Rangers and Foresters do not have the authority to grant timber, graz- 

 ing, etc., permits, and the public should not find fault with the OflEicers 

 and the Reserves if they fail to obtain permits and privileges through 

 these officers. The Forestry Commission alone grants privileges, except 

 in the few instances above stated, where minor cases have, for reasons 

 of expediting business, been delegated to the Warden of Forest Reserves. 



Considering the duties of Officers more in detail, the following should 

 be kept in mind : 



I. PREVENTING AND FIGHTING FIEES. 



It is expected that every Ranger and other Forest Officer shall be con- 

 stantly on the lookout for flres. 



Fire Notices. — An ample supply of lire warning posters will be fur- 

 nished at all times, and it is imperative that the Reserves be thoroughly 

 "posted'' with these useful notices. The fact that, in a few rare cases, 

 malicious persons destroy them is no excuse for neglecting this impor- 

 tant preventive effort. In many cases the warning can be combined with 

 some useful information, such as a sign board, to indicate the Reserve 

 line, limits of districts, or excluded parts in grazing ranges, etc. The 

 destruction of the notices is willful trespass. 



Camp Fires. — Forest Officers should inform transients and others 

 concerning the rules and regulations governing camp and other tires. 

 This should be done cheerfully and politely ; and an officer who is unable 

 to talk with persons who, from ignorance concerning the rules, or from 

 lack of experience in camping, appear to do wrong, without losing his 

 temper or without using improper language, fails to that extent in one 

 of his principal duties. In cases where inexperienced persons build a 

 fire against a large rotten log merely to cook a cup of coffee, or where 

 a fire is built in a mass of dry duff, dead leaves, branches, etc., and where 

 the work of putting out such a fire is beyond ordinary effort, a Forest 

 Officer should call their attention to such mistake and instruct them in 

 the proper way of building and handling fires. The two main points iji 

 this connection are always : 



(a) Do not star a fire where it will be difficult to put it out. 



(b) Never leave a fire without putting it out. This is law. The 

 puerile desire to see a fine balsam or spruce burn and show like a huge 

 candle in the night, which has so often been expressed and carried out, 

 must, of course, never be tolerated. It is malicious burning, and may 

 bring a fine of |1,000. 



Lighting Fires. — Fires from this source are not rare, especially in dry 

 seasons, and it is necessary after every electric storm to make a special 

 effort to locate and extinguish any such fires before they are well under 

 »vay. 



Fightinr/ Fires. — When once a fire has spread over an acre or more, 

 especially on difficult ground where a large amount of dead and down 

 material makes it a real hot fire, the matter is frequently beyond the 



