FOREWORD 



This publication is written for the purpose of supplying answers to 

 the usual questions asked forest officers by tourists and others inter- 

 ested in the work of the Forest Service in California. 



The average citizen has no conception of some of the technical 

 terms or trade names used by forest officers in their everyday work. 

 Such terms as grazing allotments, improvements, timber appraisals, 

 special use, and the like, either mean nothing to the average inquirer 

 or at least may convey only a hazy or distorted idea of what one is 

 talking c.bout. Regulation of grazing, which assures forage for live- 

 stock and the stabilization of the stock-raising industry ; regulation 

 of timber cutting, which provides for an unfailing future supply of 

 timber; forest protection, which aids in the regulation of water flow 

 and the prevention of erosion, all mean a great deal if rightly under- 

 stood. The fact that public resources are being so managed that 

 they supply a demand and bring in a revenue, and yet are not being 

 injured by use, should interest the citizen, who is a part owner and 

 shareholder in the national forests. 



The Forest Service is a decentralized Federal agency, and the idea 

 of bureaucracy is often corrected when it is seen how many important 

 questions are settled on the ground and how few are referred for 

 decision to the Forester at Washington, or even to the regional 

 forester at San Francisco. 



The district ranger has his place in the national-forest community 

 and is closely identified with its civic affairs, because he is the repre- 

 sentative of a Federal service whose business of producing timber for 

 the sawmills, protecting grazing ranges, suppressing fires, building 

 roads, trails, telephone lines, and other forest improvements, preserv- 

 ing wild life and forest scenery, is all important to community 

 prosperity. 



This publication, which is issued for general distribution as well 

 as for official use, should be an important medium of public service 

 and education to acquaint forest users and visitors with the problems 

 of administration in the national forests and the work of the Forest 

 Service. 



S. B. SHOW, 



Regional Forester, Region 5. 

 Ill 



