GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK. 21 



liminary permit also may be secured to protect the 

 applicant's rights during the period necessary for 

 making financial arrangements and for obtaining 

 engineering and other data necessary to the construc- 

 tion of the power project. The law authorizes the 

 commission, other factors being equal, to give prefer- 

 ence to applications by States and municipalities, and 

 between other applicants the commission may give 

 preference to the project which is best adapted to 

 develop, conserve, and utilize the navigation and 

 water resources of the region. 



National Forest Improvements. 



To make the National Forests fully useful to the 

 public, and also to facilitate their administration and 

 protection as Government properties, it is necessary 

 to equip them with various classes of improvements. 

 Some of these are primarily for official use, as, for 

 example, fire lookout stations, ranger stations, and 

 telephone lines. Incidentally, many of the improve- 

 ments of this class are of material service to the pub- 

 lic. Other improvements are purely for the benefit 

 of specific forms of public use, as, for example, drift 

 fences, stock-watering places, and public . camp 

 grounds. Still others are put in both to facilitate the 

 task of administering and protecting the Forests and 

 to promote use and serve the interests of the public 

 generally. 



Roads and trails are of course necessary for effi- 

 cient protection of the Forests against fire, to enable 

 Forest officers to get about in the performance of 

 their tasks, and to open up the Forests for users ; but 

 they are also a great public convenience and neces- 

 sity. The Forest Service has pushed road building 

 to the fullest extent that money could be secured for 



