Forest officer

“ Every man there, be he a humble officer of the Forest Service, State Forester, or timber owner, is there because he wants to do his own part, with his own hands or money, in preserving the magnificent forests of the West. ”

“ Another opening for Foresters in the employ of lumbermen is through the forest fire protective associations. Of these, two stand out most conspicuously at the present time, one the Northwestern Conservation and Forestry Association, the other the Oregon Forest Fire Association. Each has as its executive officer a trained Forester whose knowledge of the woods not only makes him exceedingly useful to his employers, but also, when combined with the Forester's point of view, enables him to be of great value in protecting the general interest in the forest. ”

“ The Forest Service is doing everything it can to encourage homesteaders on the National Forests; it wants them because they help to report fires, help to fight fires, and in many other ways assist the Forest officers. ”

“ An officer of the Forest Service was too often called upon for sudden excursions in unexpected emergencies to make it possible for his chiefs to keep accurate track of all his movements. A day's trip to the valley might easily be deflected to a week's excursion to the higher peaks by any one of a dozen circumstances. ”

“ The history of forestry in the United States, however, is far more important. The Forester must know the story of the growth and change of National Forest organizations, the Forest Officers and their duties, the cost, size, and effectiveness of the Government Forest Service at different times, the Civil Service regulations under which it is recruited, and other similar matters. ”

“ The institution of a national system of timber cutting to be economical in all directions is under consideration, but it is acknowledged that the work will require a certain degree of experience and training on the part of forest officers. A forest system inaugurated by the department in August, 1898, in which the reserves are placed under the control of a graded force of officers, has already shown good results ”

“ Forest officers are the servants of the people and they are expected to assist in every way possible those who wish to use the resources of the Forests. Their first duty is to enforce the regulations under which all permits, leases, sales, and rentals are made. These regulations cover every phase of National Forest activity and in conducting business under them they must not let personal or other interests weigh against the good of the Forests. ”

“ In case of a very large fire, every available man from each Forest is sent to take his place in the organization. Expert fire fighters are sent direct to the fire. Other Forest officers are sent to the large towns and villages to act as quartermasters. These men hire fire fighters, entrain them, and fill orders for food, bedding, tools, and other equipment. Other quartermasters at the scene of the fire check shipments of supplies, check the time of fire fighters, approve [146] accounts, hire transportation, and perform similar duties. ”

“ Where only dead timber is purchased, and no living trees are cut, or where patches of forest are to be cut clean, Forest officers, instead of marking every tree to be removed, blaze and mark a boundary of the cutting area or patch and instruct the purchaser accordingly. ”

“ Roads, trails, and bridges are often necessary to enable sheep and cattle to reach range lands.
Protective Improvements. Ranger stations, cabins, lookout stations, firebreaks and similar works are required to protect the forests from fire and are known as protective improvements. Buildings are constructed for the field force to afford necessary shelter and to furnish an office for the efficient transaction of business. Land is often cultivated for the production of forage crops and fences are built to insure necessary pasturage for live stock used by the Forest officers in their work. ”

“ With the development and improvement of forestry schools, the requirement of a higher technical education for positions in State service could be enforced. Yet only within the last twenty-five or thirty years, has the ranking position of forest officers been made adequate and equalized with that of other public officials of equal responsibility, and still later have their salaries been made adequate to modern requirement. ”

“ The rank-and-file of the American Forest Service are the patrolmen or rangers. Over them are supervisors, one of whom may have charge of a group of national forests, and may be obliged to travel several thousand miles a year in order to perform his duties. In Washington is the chief forester, who is at the head of the service, and has under him a staff of assistants, inspectors, and clerks. ”

“ I urge that all our National parks adjacent to National forests be placed completely under the control of the forest service of the Agricultural Department, instead of leaving them as they now are, under the Interior Department and policed by the army. ”

“ If my reader were to visit the Pikes Peak region during spring or fall he would doubtless encounter large gangs of men planting young trees on the barren mountain slopes. Under the proper supervision of Forest officers some of the men will be seen digging holes with a mattock while others are coming directly behind them with bags or boxes with wet moss or burlap, containing small trees. ”

“ The force of men at work on the Reserve varies in number according to the season of the year. When the fire-season is on many more men are on duty than in the winter-season. The year-long force consists of the Supervisor, Deputy Supervisor, Forest Clerk, Stenographer, thirteen Rangers and two Forest Examiners who are Forest School men engaged chiefly on timber sale and investigative work. ”

“ In charge of each forest is a forest supervisor. Under the supervisors are forest rangers and forest guards, whose duties include patrol, marking timber and scaling logs, enforcing the regulations and conducting some of the minor business arising from the use of the forests. ”

“ During the dangerous season the main attention of Forest Supervisors and Forest Rangers is devoted to preventing fire. Extra men are employed, the Forests are systematically patrolled, and a careful lookout is maintained from high points. ”

“ Colonel Carter, I think, sir. He's a judge of old blue blood, sir; comes of an ancient, true-blue cavalier strain himself; what you might call old Virginia particular. A splendid man, sir, a born gentleman, an officer to the back-bone, the best colonel in the service, and soon will be the best general. When he comes to show himself in field service, these militia-generals will have to take the back seats. ”

“ For a long time to come, then, the National Forests will need improvements in order to make them secure against fire and in order to make the resources, now locked up, available. Proper protection and the fullest use of National Forest [50] resources depend mainly upon facilities for transportation, communication, and control. All parts of the National Forests should be accessible by roads and trails; there should be telephone communication between settlements and Forest officers' headquarters and with the lookout stations ”

“ A thorough re-organization of the forest service was effected in 1893, when 20 district foresters were employed, the number of forest inspectors was increased to four, and a regular Division of Forestry was instituted in the Finance Department. The general police or gendarmerie was continued as forest guards. Until a native personnel could be educated by sending young men to Germany, foreigners [334] were to be employed for the making of working plans. ”

“ Roads and trails are so built that every part of the Forests may be quickly reached with pack animals. Tools [123] and food for fire fighters are stored at convenient places. The Ranger stations and lookout houses are connected with the office of the Forest Supervisor by telephone, so that men may be quickly assembled to fight a dangerous fire which the patrolman cannot subdue alone. Each Forest Supervisor endeavors to secure the coöperation of all forest users in the work of preventing fires and in reporting and helping to fight them in case they get started. ”

“ When the Forest Supervisor receives such estimates and plans from each of his Forest Rangers he studies them over carefully and tries to decide in an impartial way what improvements are most necessary in each Ranger district and what additional men are necessary for the adequate protection of the region in question. ”

“ These are professionally trained Foresters. They are subordinate upon each forest to the Supervisor as manager, but it is their work which has most to do with deciding whether the Forest Service in general is to be successful or is to fail in the great task of preserving the forest by wise use. ”

“ Go on up to the top of this knob. Face exactly east and you will see a gap in the second range of mountains. Make your way through that gap and you'll find as fine a trout-stream as God ever made. This is state forest and the Forestry Department wants everybody to use and enjoy the forests. We are always glad to help campers."
"Are you connected with the State Forest Service?" asked Charley, all interest.
"Of course," smiled the stranger. "I'm a forest-ranger," and he threw back his coat, exhibiting a keystone shaped badge on his breast.
"And it's your duty to protect the forest from fire?" ”

“ It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their duties are of many kinds. ”

“ Sergeant Meyer was on the right, veteran Kelly on the left, the two recruits in the centre, the pieces at a shoulder, the bayonets fixed. As Thurstane rode up to this diminutive line of battle, Meyer was shouting forth his sharp and decisive orders. They were just the right orders; excited as the young officer was, he comprehended that there was nothing to change; moreover, he had already learned how men are disconcerted in battle by a multiplicity of directions. So he sat quietly on his horse, revolver in hand, his blue-black eyes staring angrily at the coming storm. ”

“ Passed was that springtide of popular enthusiasm when companies were raised in a day, when undersized heroes wept at being rejected by the mustering officer, when well-to-do youths paid a hundred dollars to buy out a chance to be shot at. Bull Run had disenchanted some romantic natures concerning the pleasures of war, and the vast enlistments of the summer had drawn heavily on the nation's fighting material. Moreover, Colburne had to encounter obstacles of a personal nature, such as did not trouble some of his competitors. ”

“ Nearly all of these duties the Ranger may perform in certain cases without supervision, if his judgment and training are sufficient, but the marking especially is often done under the eye or in accordance with the directions of the technical Forester, whose duty it is to see that the future of the forest is protected by enforcing the conditions of sale. ”

“ The Government to-day owns over two hundred million acres of forest land, set aside as National Forests. There are one hundred and fifty individual reserves, distributed as shown in Fig. 137 and cared for by the Forest Service, a bureau in the Department of Agriculture. Each of the forests is in charge of a supervisor. He has with him a professional forester and a body of men who patrol the tract against fire and the illegal cutting of timber. Some of the men are engaged in planting trees on the open areas and others in studying the important forest problems of the region. ”

“ Seventy-five years ago, the Forest Service was created within the United States Department of Agriculture to help conserve and protect America's forestlands. The dedicated men and women of this agency can be proud of their accomplishments. ”

“ Miss Ravenel raised her head with an air of interest, glanced hastily at her father, and gave herself anew to her embroidery. The Doctor made a grimace which was as much as to say that he thought small beer or sour beer of Lieutenant-Colonel Carter.
"He is a very fine officer," said Colburne. "He was highly spoken of for his conduct at Bull Run."
"I would rather have you for a Colonel," replied the Doctor.
Colburne laughed contemptuously at the idea of his fitness for a colonelcy.
"I would rather have any respectable man of tolerable intellect," insisted the Doctor. ”

“ The growth of the Division of Forestry, now the United States Forest Service, has been very remarkable since 1898, when it consisted of only a few scientific workers and clerks. At present it employs more than 2,600 workers, which number is increased during the dangerous fire season to from 4,000 to 5,000 employees. ”

“ WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER SAFETY. (a) Definitions- In this section: (1) SECRETARIES- The term `Secretaries' means— (A) the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Directors of the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and (B) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service. (2) WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER- The term `wildland firefighter' means any person who participates in wildland firefighting activities— (A) under the direction of either of the Secretaries ”

“ The most important tasks of the trained Forester on a National Forest are the preparation of working plans for the use of the forest by methods which will protect and perpetuate it as well, and the carrying out of the plans when made. ”