Part 3 (1/2)
A PUBLIC SERVANT
I repeat that whether a Forester is engaged in private work or in public work, whether he is employed by a lumberman, an a.s.sociation of lumbermen, a fis.h.i.+ng and shooting club, the owner of a great estate, or whether he is an officer of a State or of the Nation, by virtue of his profession he is a public servant. Because he deals with the forest, he has his hand upon the future welfare of his country. His point of view is that which must control its future welfare. He represents the planned and orderly development of its resources. He is the representative also of the forest school from which he graduates, and of his profession.
Upon the standards which he helps to establish and maintain, the welfare of these, too, directly depends.
STATE FOREST WORK
The work of the States in forestry is still in the pioneer stage, and the work of a State Forester must still bear largely on the creation of a right public sentiment in forest matters. In State forestry the need for agitation has by no means pa.s.sed. It is often the duty of the State Forester to prepare or endeavor to secure the pa.s.sage of good State forest laws, or to interpose against the enactment of bad laws. In particular, much of his time is likely to be given to legislation upon the subjects of forest fires and forest taxation. Upon the latter there is as yet no sound and effective public opinion in many parts of the United States, and legislatures and people still do not understand how powerful bad methods of forest taxation have been and still are in forcing the destructive cutting of timber by making it impossible to wait for the better methods of lumbering which accompany a better market. I have known the taxes on standing timber to equal six per cent.
a year on the reasonable value of the stumpage.
Thirteen States have State Forests with a total area altogether of 3,400,000 acres. Of these New York has the largest area. Its State Forests cover 1,645,000 acres, partly in the Adirondacks and partly in the Catskills; Pennsylvania comes next with nine hundred and eighty-four thousand acres; and Wisconsin third, with about four hundred thousand acres.
Twenty-nine States make appropriations for forest work. Excluding special appropriations for courses in forestry at universities, colleges, and schools, the total amount spent for this purpose is about $1,340,000. Pennsylvania has the largest appropriation,--three hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars, in addition to which a special appropriation of two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars has been devoted to checking the chestnut blight. Minnesota comes second with two hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars; New York third with about one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, and Wisconsin next with ninety-five thousand dollars.
Thirty-three States have State forest officers, of whom fifteen are State Foresters by t.i.tle, while the majority of the remainder perform duties of a very similar nature.
Eleven States are receiving a.s.sistance from the Federal Government under the Weeks law, which authorizes cooperation for fire protection, provided the State will furnish a sum equal to that allotted to it from the National fund, with a limit of ten thousand dollars to a single State.
For purposes of reforestation, ten States maintain forest nurseries.
During the year 1912 they produced in round numbers twenty million young trees, of which fourteen million were distributed to the citizens of these ten States.
In some States the waterpower question falls within the sphere of the State Forester, as well as other similar Conservation matters, while it has usually been made his duty to a.s.sist private timberland owners in the handling of their holdings, whether these be the larger holdings of lumber companies or the farmers' woodlots. In many States the State Forester is made responsible for the enforcement of the State forest fire laws, and for the control and management of a body of State fire wardens, who may or may not be permanently employed in that work. The enforcement of laws which exempt timberlands or lands planted to timber from taxation, or limit the taxation upon them, are also usually under his supervision.
The work of forestry in the various States being on the whole much less advanced than it is in the Nation, the State Forester must still occupy himself largely with those preliminary phases of the work of forestry through which the National Forest Service has already pa.s.sed. Much progress, however, is being made, and we may fairly count not only that State forest organizations will ultimately exist in every State, but that the State Foresters will exert a steadily increasing influence on forest perpetuation in the United States.
THE FOREST SERVICE IN WAs.h.i.+NGTON
A description of what a Forester has to do which did not include the work of the Government Foresters at the National Capital would necessarily be incomplete. The following outline may, therefore, help to round out the picture.
The Was.h.i.+ngton headquarters of the Forest Service are directly in charge of the Forester and his immediate a.s.sistants. The Forester has general supervision of the whole Service. It is he who, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, determines the general policy which is to govern the Service in the very various and numerous matters with which it has to deal. He keeps his hand upon the whole machinery of the Service, holds it up to its work, and in general is responsible for supplying it with the right spirit and point of view, without which any kind of efficiency is impossible.
The Forester prepares the estimates, or annual budget, for the expenditures of the Service, and appears before Committees of Congress to explain the need for money, and otherwise to set forth or defend the work upon which the Service is engaged. His immediate subordinates spend a large part of their time in the field inspecting the work of the Service and keeping its tone high. Their reports to the Forester keep him thoroughly advised as to the situation on all the National Forests, so that he may wisely meet each question as it comes up, and adjust the regulations and routine business methods of the Service to the constantly changing needs of the people with whom it deals.
Being responsible for the personnel of the Forest Service, the Forester recommends to the Secretary of Agriculture, by whom the actual papers are issued, all appointments to it, as well as promotions, reductions, and dismissals. Under his immediate eye also is the very important and necessary work of making public the information collected by the Service for the use of the people. Since 1900, 370 publications of the Service have been issued, with a total circulation of 11,198,000 copies.
The publications of the United States Forest Service include by far the most and the best information upon the forests of this country which has until now been a.s.sembled and printed. Hence, the prospective student of forestry can do nothing better than to write to The Forester, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C. (which is the correct address), for the annotated catalogue of these publications which is sent free to all applicants, and then to secure and study such of the bulletins and circulars as best meet his individual needs. If he looks forward to entering the United States Forest Service, he should not fail to get also the Use Book, the volume of directions and regulations in accordance with which the National Forests are protected, developed, and made available and useful to the people of the regions in which they lie.
The dendrological work of the Service, which has to do with forest distribution, the identification of tree species and other forest botanical work, is also under the immediate supervision of the Forester, and the Chief Lumberman reports directly to him.
In addition to the work which falls immediately under the eye of the Forester, and which used to, but does not now, include the legal work necessary to support and promote the operations of the Service, there are seven princ.i.p.al parts, or branches, in the work of the Was.h.i.+ngton headquarters. The first of these is the Branch of Accounts, whose work I need not describe further than to say that the Service has always owed a very large part of its safety against the bitter attacks of its enemies to the accuracy, completeness, and general high quality of its accounting system.
The second branch, that of Operation, has charge of the business administration both of the National Forests and of the other work of the Forest Service. Here the business methods which are necessary to keep the organization at a high state of efficiency are formulated, put in practice, and constantly revised, for it is only by such revision that they can be kept, as they are kept, at a level with the very best practice of the best modern business. There are very few Government bureaus of which this can be said. The Branch of Operation is responsible for the adoption and enforcement of labor-saving devices in correspondence, in handling requisitions, and in the filing and care of papers generally, and for the supply of stationery, tools, and instruments, and the renting of quarters,--in a word, for the whole of the more or less routine transaction of business which is essential to keep so large an organization at the highest point of efficiency.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BRUSH PILING IN A NATIONAL FOREST TIMBER SALE]