2 CIR. 211, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
ice also makes investigations in the interest of the 
best use of the forests and forest products of the coun- 
try generally. These investigations are, in purpose 
and method, comparable with those of other bureaus 
in the same department and often concern kindred 
matters. 
The keynote of national forest administration is 
service. The object aimed at is the best use of the 
many resources of the forests in the interest of the 
public welfare. From the standpoint of material 
wealth the forests have their greatest importance as 
sources of Supply of wood, water, and range forage. 
They have also a great and growing value to the 
country as places of recreation. Not only are they 
open to all persons for all lawful purposes, the prime 
object always held in view is to make them more 
useful to more people. Naturally they are of greatest 
benefit to the local residents near them and to the 
States in which they lie; but they are useful also to 
the whole country in ways that are not always 
realized. 
Most of the national forests are located in the 
mountainous regions of the country, where the pres- 
ervation of tree growth is of great importance. From 
the hardwoods of the southern Appalachians to the 
spruces of the White Mountains in New England, 
from the pifion and juniper stands where tree growth 
begins in the southern Rockies of New Mexico to the 
pine and fir forests of the Canadian line in Montana 
and Idaho, from the brush-covered foothills of the San 
Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains in southern 
California to the vast softwood stands of the Olym- 
pics and Cascades in northern Washingon, the national 
forests lie mainly on the mountain slopes. Even along 
the Alaskan shore, where the Tongass and Chugach 
National Forests form a tattered ribbon 600 miles 
long from the southern tip of the Territory to within 
sight of Mount McKinley, the valuable Sitka spruce 
and hemlock growth clothes the lower flanks of the 
coastal mountains. In these rugged regions of the 
country permanent forests constitute the highest use 
to which the land can be put. 
