82 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



The Forest Service 

 Establishes Field 

 Headquarters in 

 San Francisco. 



For three or four years past admini- 

 stration of the National Forests from 

 Field headquarters has been anticipated 

 and the whole trend of the organization 

 has been toward it. The first definite 



step was taken July i, 1907, when six inspection districts were 

 started and inspectors permanently assigned to each. This gave 

 the technical men an opportunity to become acquainted with the 

 supervisors and rangers and users and — what was fully as im- 

 portant — convinced the men on the forests, the lumbermen and 

 the stockmen, that these inspectors were practical men who knew 

 their business. After a year and a half this organization proved 

 inadequate. Systematized inspection meant increased efficiency 

 in the field, but it also meant vastly increased routine business 

 to be handled by the Washington office. One good result of it 

 was the training of both the ranger and the inspector. 



Plans to establish district headquarters were begun about 

 July 1st, and on December ist the new organization went into 

 effect. The offices for the Fifth District, California and a portion 

 of western Nevada, are in the First National Bank Building in 

 San Francisco. Mr. F. E. Olmsted, formerly chief inspector, 

 is District Forester, with Mr. Coert DuBois, one of the inspectors, 

 as Assistant District Forester. The organization of the district 

 office follows closely that of the Washington office. Men in 

 charge of the branches of operation — Grazing, Products, and 

 Silviculture — in Washington direct the policy and exercise gen- 

 eral control over similar Hnes of work in the district office. 

 All business except that requiring departmental action is trans- 

 acted in the district office, — accounts are audited and paid; 

 receipts from grazing, the sale of timber, and the use of National 

 forest land are deposited in the First National Bank of San 

 Francisco and accounted for to the district fiscal agent; appli- 

 cations for classification of land under the Forest Homestead Act 

 are made to the District Forester and examined under his 

 direction and, if found to be agricultural, listed by him with the 

 General Land Office. A corps of technical foresters, land exam- 

 iners, expert lumbermen, miners, and engineers attached to the 

 district office are available for assignment to any of the California 

 forests to assist and advise the local officers. 



The personnel of the new office is made up of men who have 

 had long experience in service work in all parts of the West 

 and in the Washington office. Mr. R. L. Fromme, in charge of 

 operation, is a forest school graduate who, through his experi- 

 ence as supervisor of the Kaniksu National Forest, is well 

 qualified to appreciate the difficulties of the supervisors in the 



