WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE 



39 



his horse in country where it is often scarce. On the Alaska national 

 forests travel is almost entirely by water, and the ranger must add 

 to his other skills that of knowing how to navigate a seagoing launch. 

 On districts where the work is heavy, the ranger may be assisted 

 by one or more assistant rangers. Ordinarily junior foresters are 

 selected to act as assistant rangers. The position of forest ranger is 

 filled through promotion of qualified employees of the Forest Service 

 who have demonstrated their ability to handle administrative work. 



Figure 29. — The forest ranger is an administrator of a huge area of land and carries 

 heavy responsibilities. In order to become familiar with his entire district, he must 

 often make hard trips afield to remote localities. 



In addition to the different classes of forest officers mentioned, 

 logging engineers, lumbermen, scalers, planting assistants, engineers, 

 landscape specialists, wildlife specialists, economists, ecologists, etc., 

 are employed on the forest in the work of timber appraisal, cruising, 

 scaling, forest planting and nursery work, and other specialized 

 activities. Like all other permanent employees, they are appointed 

 only after a civil-service examination. 



Forest guards are temporary employees appointed during the sea- 

 son of greatest fire danger. They are usually men who are thor- 

 oughly familiar with the country in which they are to serve. More 

 than 5,000 forest guards are employed on the national forests each 

 year. 



