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Des Moines

Tahu Council

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1903-04

OMIC LOCATION AND PRIMARY CONTROL

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forms and choice of essential details, and in eliminating as far as possible their mannerisms and individualities, with a view to gaining uniformity of expression for similar features throughout the country.

For several years it had been manifest that a system of general inspection was desirable, because of the great extent of the operations of the Survey and the impossibility of individuals working in widely separated localities making intelligent comparisons and avoiding diversity of style. The need is now met by the new section of inspection. It is also a part of the duties of the inspector, in consultation with the section chiefs, to examine into and reconcile questions which may arise between the geologic and topographic branches as to proper and adequate delineation of features required in special investigations.

Special attention is given by this section to a classification of the physiographic types of topography throughout the United States and their relation to the geologic structure. For this purpose there has been prepared for the use of the topographers and others a series of charts on which are represented characteristic types in the grand physiographic divisions of the United States, with examples of approved contouring of each type.

A wall map of the United States is being prepared, which will be used also as a general base map for all purposes. The scale is 40 miles to the inch, with relief represented by 1,000-foot contours. It will show State and county boundaries, with the names and locations of county seats, and all railroads and drainage. This map will be an example of technical and artistic cartography, and will serve as an accurate and convenient base upon which to plot a great variety of information.

DIVISION OF GEOGRAPHY AND FORESTRY.

This division was organized in 1896. Its work is varied in character. To it were originally consigned all matters connected with general geography, including the compilation of secondary maps and the preparation of papers on geographic and physiographic subjects. To these duties there were added in 1897 the examination of forests and forest conditions in the reserves and other wooded regions of the country, and the preparation of reports on them.

The annual allotments which have been made for this work are as follows: 1896, $6,000; 1897 and 1898, $20,000 each; 1899, 1900, and 1901, $25,000 each; 1902 and 1903, $20,000 each.

The field force employed in the examination of forests has varied in different years, and most of the men have been employed for a part of the year only. This work being the first attempt to accurately examine and appraise the forests of this country, it was necessary both to build up an organization and to originate plans and methods for field work and for presentation of the results in reports and on maps.

It was decided to classify lands as wooded and nonwooded; to classify the wooded land as that covered with forests valuable for lumber, and that of value only for firewood and other minor purposes; to estimate the amount of timber on the former and the stand per acre; to define those areas on which the timber has been cut and those on which it has been burned, and on each of these areas the lands on which there is a regrowth of the forest.

Besides these data, information was required concerning the size, species, and quality of the tree growth, the extent to which it is diseased, the character of the undergrowth, the depth of humus and litter, the character of streams in respect to the driving of logs, the character of the country with reference to the building of logging railways, the demand for lumber in the neighborhood, and the effect of grazing (especially that of sheep) upon the present and future forests.

Following is a schedule, by years, of the forest reserves and adjacent regions which have been examined:

In 1897: Washington, Priest River, Bitterroot (in part), Black Hills, Bighorn, Teton and Yellowstone Park, San Jacinto, San Bernardino, and San Gabriel.

In 1898: All reserves of Colorado, the Flathead, Bitterroot (completed).

In 1899: Lewis and Clarke, Mount Rainier, Olympic (in part), Cascade Range in southern Oregon, part of Sierra Nevada, including Stanislaus and Lake Tahoe reserves, and Yosemite National Park. Besides the above, much information concerning the conditions of the forests in northern Minnesota was obtained, principally through correspondence.

In 1900: Olympic (completed), northern part of Sierra Nevada, Sierra (in part), Cascade Range between Washington and Mount Rainier reserves.

In 1901: Sierra (completed), Cascade Range in Oregon (completed), San Francisco Mountain Reserve (in part), southern Appalachians in North Carolina and adjacent States (in part).

In 1902: San Francisco Mountain Reserve (completed), Black Mesa, Uinta (in part), southern Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina and adjacent States. In 1903: Gila River, Lincoln, Wichita, part of Whatcom County, Wash., Little Belt, Absaroka.

These examinations, extending over a period of seven years, cover 70,400,000 acres. Reports on these areas, down to those examined in 1901, except those in the Sierra Forest Reserve and in the Appalachians, have been published. Of the reserves examined in 1902 the reports on the San Francisco Mountain and Black Mesa reserves have been prepared and are in the hands of the printer. All these reports are accompanied by maps and other illustrations.

In addition to these examinations a large amount of information has been collected, mainly from the reports of lumber cruisers in private employ, concerning the forests of Washington outside of the reserves, and from these data and the examinations of reserves there have been prepared estimates of the amount of timber in the State and of its distribution areally and by species. Similar results have been obtained for Oregon, in part by collating cruisings, in part by the Survey's

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own examinations of reserves, but in by far the larger part through the personal work of Mr. A. J. Johnson, who devoted two years to traveling about the State and inspecting its forests.

Out of the examination of forest reserves has grown the preparation of economic or land-classification sheets, showing on the regular • atlas sheets of the Survey as a base-not only the forests, with burnt and cut lands, but the irrigable and pasture lands. Of these sheets 35 have been published, some as illustrations in reports on forest reserves and others independently.

The preparation of such land-classification maps and reports did not originate with this Survey. Three of the old surveys of the West, popularly known as the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys, gave attention to this subject and embodied the results in reports. In the Hayden Atlas of Colorado, published in 1876, there is a land-classification map of the entire State, and a bulletin of that survey was devoted to this subject.

The Powell survey published a land-classification map of Utah, and a volume entitled "Lands of the Arid Regions." This book is a classic on the subject, and formed the basis upon which the entire system, not only of land classification, but of irrigation, is founded. The Wheeler survey also published an edition of its atlas sheets colored to represent forests, grazing lands, and desert lands. The plan adopted by the Geological Survey in its land-classification sheets is much more elaborate than these, but in general principles conforms to them.

Another result of these examinations is the collection of land-classification data by the topographers in the course of their topographic work. Mainly from this source information of this character, covering several hundred thousand square miles in various parts of the country, has been assembled. This information is of different degrees of accuracy and fullness for different areas, but altogether it forms a very valuable contribution to our knowledge of the forests of the United States. Its possession has enabled this office to guide the Department in extending and modifying the boundaries of reserves.

There is still another by-product of the examination of forest reserves. In certain cases no topographic maps existed, and in order to represent geographically the data collected it became necessary to prepare maps. This has been done in the cases of the Olympic and Mount Rainier reserves in Washington and most of the Cascade Range Reserve in Oregon. These maps, having been published on a scale of 4 miles to the inch, can rank only as reconnaissance maps, but they will serve a useful purpose until better ones can be prepared.

The office force of the division has always been small, comprising usually two or three clerks and a chief draftsman, under whose direction complete small-scale maps of 11 States and Territories have been compiled.

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