Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1908-07-17
CHANGE IS PART
OF AN OLD PROGRAM
Larger Forces viii be Maintained
at Main Offices of Six Districts
While Washington Office viii
Supervise Entire
Work

Washington, July 17.-In order to
expedite and render more effective
and economical the work of admins
tering the national forests, field head
quarters are to be established by the
forest service in the west, and the
clerical force needed to complete the
organization will be mainly drawn
from the force now employed in the
Washington office. The change will
take place not later than January /,
1903, and Will probably begin by Oc-
tober l of the present year.
At present the national forests are
grouped under six districts, with
headquarters as follows: District /,
Missoula, Mont; district 2, Denver,
Colo; district 3, Albuquerque, n. M;
district 4, Salt Lake City, Utah; dis
trict s, San Francisco, Calf, and dis
trict 8, Portland, Ore. These head
quarters will remain unchanged under
the new plan of administration. Each
district will be in charge of an as
sstant forester who will deal directly
with the supervisors of the forests of
his district. only questions of special
importance will be submitted to the
Washington office for action. In this
way the regular business of the for
ests VIII be much expedited, while the
men who have charge of the business
will be in almost constant touch with
the users of the forests. The men TO
take charge of the several districts
have not yet been selected, but they
will be chosen from those in the reg
ular service force who have had the
most experience in the work on the
national forests.
The growth of business on national
forests, resulting from the use of
their resources by the public, has been
steady and rapid ever since the pol
icy of wide use supplanted the policy
of restricted use, at the time when the
management of the national forests
was placed under the forest service.
One of the big problems of admins
tration has been to get into close
touch with the users Of the national
forests, and this has already been par
TALLY solved by various expedients,
such as delegating to local forest ofti-
GERS the authority to transact large
part of the national forest busine ess.
In this way the public and the service
have been constantly brought closer
together. second step in the same
direction was the recent transfer of
headquarters for supplies from WASH
ngton, ID. c., TO Ogden, Utah. A third
step was the placing of a branch OF
the office of engineering, which mas
charge of permanent improvements
on the forests, also at Ogden, whicn
is centrally located. The contemplated
change is. therefore, merely the COM
pletion of a plan which has already
been partially worked out.
Probably one-tnird of the clerical
force now in Washington mainly
stenographers and typewriters, will
go west to complete organization re-
quired in each field district. 1t is
expected that a sufficient number of
clerks in the Washington office will
desire assignments to the field head
quarters, so that it will not be neces-
sary to send to the field those who do
not wish to go, and no new appoint
ments viii be necessary. In making
selections for the new posts the indl- |
vidual preferences of the clerks will
be consulted so far as the work per-
mits.
The change will not affect the form |
of organization of the forest service |
in Washington. The offices will be |
retained as at present, but with a |
smaller force. All of the investigative |
work done by the service. except that !
directly connected with the adminis-
tration of the national forests, will |
to be directed from Wash
ington.