Men Who Matched the Mountains: The Forest Service in the Southwest

The National Forest System of the Southwest is big business. With more than five million acres of commercial forest and nearly 15 million acres of woodland (non-commercial forest) and grazing lands to administer, the Regional Office staff of 281 persons in Albuquerque supervises a tremendous amount of activity.

Revenues reached a record high figure in 1969. This was attributed to high lumber prices. Forest Service officials do not expect the high income to continue, since lumber prices may drop back more in line with the 1968 level.

Total revenues collected for the fiscal year ending June, 1969, were $7,910,624.34. These payments came from timber sales, grazing fees, land use, mineral leases and permits, recreation use, power line rights-of-way and non-locatable minerals. Of the amount collected, 25 percent is returned to the counties of the states in which the income originated. Arizona counties received a total of $1,269,799.80 and New Mexico counties, $676,679.07. In 1968, total revenues had for the first time in several years passed the $3,000,000 mark. The total was $3,274,395.71, of which nearly $800,000 was distributed to the forest counties in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Regional administration of Southwestern National Forests is the responsibility of Divisions in the Regional Office in Albuquerque. Recreation and Lands and Information and Education are discussed in separate chapters. The work of some of the other Divisions is reported on here.

Fiscal Control

The Division of Fiscal Control serves management of the Region by developing, coordinating and directing both the fiscal and law enforcement work of the Region. The organizational structure of the Division was sectionalized in 1964 to place specific duties under supervision of three branch chiefs: Accounting, Fiscal Management, and Review and Analysis. Another branch was added in 1967 when Law Enforcement was transferred from the Division of Fire Control.

There have been many significant changes in operational procedures throughout the years. The year 1957 saw the conversion of the accounting system from a manual operation on National Cash Register accounting machines to automatic data processing. This unit was established in the Division of Fiscal Control until August of 1966 when the operation was placed under the supervision of the Division of Operation. In 1964 with the establishment of the Department of Agriculture automatic data processing payrolling unit in New Orleans, payrolls were no longer processed for payment in Fiscal Control but were mailed directly from field units to the centralized operation.

In 1965 permission was granted by the Chiefs Office to establish a Coordinated Work Planning Budgetary, Accounting and Work Accomplishment reporting system in Region 3 on a pilot basis. The system had been designed by Region and Washington Office Forest Service personnel to better fit the needs of the Forest Service. The system with minor modifications is still in use.

The Law Enforcement Branch played a significant part in bringing to prosecution persons involved in violence and destruction of government property in northern New Mexico National Forests. These events are discussed in the final chapter.

Engineering

The engineering staff of the Southwestern Region is concerned with a variety of activities, everything from mapping and road building, to sewage disposal, construction of Visitor Information Centers, and landscaping.

Nearly half of the annual Forest Service budget goes into engineered construction on the National Forests, and the scope of activities requires in the Southwestern Region a staff of 57—the largest of all the divisions.

The engineers provide special skills that pay off in new and better ways to develop and utilize the wood, water, range forage, wildlife, and recreation resources of the Forests. Environmental and esthetic considerations are being given more prominence than ever in engineered projects.

An important phase of the staff's activity is working with developers who establish facilities on National Forest lands. These must meet Forest Service requirements. An outstanding example of working with developers is the gondola lift on the Cibola National Forest, the Sandia Tramway, which is one of many installations by private industry for snow-related sports and recreation. Most of the major ski areas in the Southwest, as elsewhere, involve National Forest lands.

In general, the work of the engineers falls into three major categories: the work it handles itself; the work done in cooperation with other agencies; and the private developments authorized by permit or license and the public works by other government agencies.

Road building is the biggest activity. Cooperative programs include transmission lines, highways, power projects, conduits, dams, resorts, etc., and in all cases the engineers work with the designers and contractors to make sure that projects are safe, and located, designed and constructed to minimize impacts on Forest resources.

Range and Wildlife Management

Livestock production has been important in the Southwest since settlement by the Spanish more than 300 years ago. National Forest System lands provide approximately 13,000,000 acres of range extending from the lower desert, chaparral and plains to the subalpine vegetative types in the mountains. With its relatively favorable climate, the area is unique in that yearlong grazing is common for many permittees operating on these public lands.

Nearly 3000 permittees are authorized to graze more than two million animal unit months annually. Use by sheep has generally declined over the years and many permittees are gradually converting to cattle operations.

The Forest Service tries to develop the range resource to its potential consistent with other resource considerations and sustained yield principles. Encouraging sound range management practices and a stable livestock industry on public lands and nearby lands of other ownerships is an important part of this goal. Meeting these objectives involves administering the grazing permit system, constructing improvements, revegetating poor range, and related work in a multiple use land management program.

Wildlife management on the National Forest System lands is a highly cooperative program. The Forest Service is primarily responsible for management of habitat, and by cooperative agreement the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has primary responsibility for fundamental fish and wild animal research, propagation of fish in Federal hatcheries, and predator control projects. There are cooperative arrangements also with other Federal agencies and State Game and Fish Departments.

Watershed Management and State and Private Forestry

The National Forests of Arizona and New Mexico produce three-fourths of the available water of the two states, which offers an idea of the importance of watershed controls in the Southwest.

The Region's Multiple Use Management Guide notes that "water is a critical factor in the economy and future development of the Southwest. The need for additional water is urgent. Approximately 300,000 acres of potential agricultural land lies idle in Arizona for lack of water."

The Guide points out that underground reserves are being depleted, and as an example, "the annual pumping rate from this reserve in the Salt River Valley in Arizona is about three times the annual recharge. Other water sources are being sought, including additional water from the watersheds within the state."

The annual water yield from the National Forest System lands in the Southwestern Region is estimated at three million acre feet. Approximately half of this amount comes from summer storms, the balance from snow.

The guide notes that "there are opportunities to increase water quality and quantity. . . . Research and new management techniques prove it possible to significantly modify water yields by delaying runoff, reducing sedimentation, and manipulating vegetative cover and snow pack. Some water yield improvement activities may require a change in the land cover which could increase the opportunities for accelerated erosion."

As part of its plan for control of watersheds and to increase water quantity, the Forest Service has undertaken a number of research and pilot test development projects.

Watershed management is the direct responsibility of the District Ranger. However, he is able to draw upon special scientific soil and water management skills as needed, and basic soil and hydrologic survey data is supplied for the Rangers to use in preparing watershed management plans and coordinating other resource programs with water resource. Reconnaissance level hydrologic surveys have been made on approximately 18,000,000 acres.

Watershed restoration projects are carried out as funds are available. During the past five years, 400 miles of gullies were stabilized, 75,000 acres of sheet erosion revegetated, and erosion on 1600 miles of abandoned roads controlled. However, the Division's inventory shows this impressive backlog still to be done:

As part of the Forest Service program of watershed protection, the Division's watershed scientists provide Rangers with analysis of water which flows from National Forest lands. Chemical, physical and biological analyses are made on samples collected at 172 operational stations on 12 National Forests, and more than 10,400 determinations are made annually and stored for automatic data processing. This sampling is an early warning system designed to prevent degradation of water quality from pollution. The program is coordinated with other state and federal agencies working on different facets of the Federal Water Pollution Control Program.

Soil survey and soil management, watershed protection, water yield improvement, resource development, river basin surveys and investigations are all part of the complex job of watershed management.

State and Private Forestry is a branch of the Division of Watershed Management. The objective of State and Private Forestry in the Southwestern Region is to further the protection, sound management, and wise use on non-federal forest and watershed lands. It is the general policy to work with and through state foresters in carrying out many of the State and Private Forestry programs. A major objective is to develop strong State forestry organizations which will conduct adequate forestry programs for all non-Federal forest and watershed lands in the State for harvesters, distributors and processors of forest products.

The Region uses the following cooperative programs to accomplish these objectives: Cooperative Fire Control, Cooperative Forest Management, Cooperative Tree Planting, Rural Areas Development, General Forestry Assistance, Four Corners Economic Development, Rural Environmental Assistance Program, Cooperative Forest Insect and Disease Control, Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention, Great Plains Conservation Program, Rural Fire Defense and the Resource Conservation and Development Program.

The New Mexico State Forestry Department was organized December 1, 1957. Arizona was the last state of the fifty to organize a forestry department, (July 1, 1966) which was placed under the Arizona Land Department. New Mexico has five district offices which cover the entire State and has responsibility for most aspects of forestry work on non-Federal lands. Arizona has no district offices but operates out of the State office in Phoenix, with a second office in Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. So far, Arizona is also involved in most of the cooperative programs and the management of State-owned commercial forest lands near Flagstaff.

At this time New Mexico State Forestry Department is protecting from fire all non-Federal lands in the State which amounts to approximately 40 million acres. The Arizona State Forestry Department has approximately 3,129,000 acres under fire protection at this time. They are managing the 35,000 acres of State timber lands for a sustained yield. Special emphasis is given to programs designed to improve rural conditions in poverty areas of the Region.

Timber Management

When the National Forests were established, one purpose was to furnish a continuing supply of timber for the use and needs of the people of the United States. Region 3, with more than 5,000,000 acres of commercial forest land under its management, helps to accomplish this objective without impairing the productivity of the land and at the same time considering other resource needs.

The timber management plan for each National Forest shows how much timber is available, how much can be cut, when and where it can be cut. Areas are divided into timber sale units, and before timber is offered for sale, the area is examined to determine what trees will be removed, the estimated volume that can be cut, the timber stand improvement needs, and what treatment may be desired to protect the area from fire, insects, disease, and erosion.

In making such determinations, the other specialists of the Forest Service are consulted—engineers, landscape architects, soil and water specialists, range conservationists. Oftentimes timber sales benefit other resources, by opening up timber stands and thereby permitting more plants to grow which provide forage for wildlife, and by increasing water yields, since snow-packs increase on cutover areas.

When timber is sold it is offered for bid by advertising for 30 days in local newspapers, and the minimum acceptable bid is the current fair market value.

The timber sale contract covers how timber will be cut, measured and paid for, what improvements will be constructed, how logging operations will be conducted, what fire precautions will be necessary, etc.

The management plan for the working circle outlines the silvicultural needs, that is, what is needed to place the forest and forest lands into its best growing condition. Existing stands are examined to determine what improvement work is desirable and what areas with scattered or no timber must be reforested. The reforestation is accomplished both by natural regeneration from remaining trees that furnish seed, or by hand or machine seeding or planting. Oftentime large area seeding is done by airplane. Planting is done with seedlings from Forest Service nurseries.

Explaining the work of the Timber Management Division, F. LeRoy Bond reported that as an example, "Region 3 during the 1969 fiscal year planted 710 acres with ponderosa pine, Englemann spruce, white fir and Douglas-fir seedlings. The total such acreage to date is 15,122 acres.

"Another 3,816 acres were sown with pine, spruce, and fir seeds. The total acreage seeded to date is 24,858 acres.

"About 30,679 acres of young pine stands have been thinned. Thinning removes enough trees in dense young stands to give the optimum number of crop trees the needed growing space to put on the maximum growth the site can produce.

Division of Operation

The Division of Operation has the major responsibility of providing service to all other Regional Office divisions and to National Forests and Ranger Districts in the Southwestern Region. There are five broad program areas: Financial Management, Administrative Services, Administrative Management, Automatic Data Processing, and Manpower and Youth Conservation Programs.

The Financial Management unit is responsible for budget planning and execution of approved budgets, exercising management control over the obligation and expenditure of funds. Administrative Services is responsible for leadership, training, regional policy development and operational responsibility for contracting, procurement, real and personal property management, and records management for the Region.

Administrative Management is chiefly an analytical unit concerned with studies aimed at improving organization, workload measurement, performance, flow of work, inventories, etc. Forest Service Manual directives by the various divisions are edited and published here. This section also has overall responsibility for administration of the employee suggestion program.

The complexity of the Region's business operation brought about establishment of an automatic Data Processing Unit. The Division uses a Univac business-type computer and has access through inter-agency agreements with larger computers for complex computations. In December, 1969, the Region's Univac 1005 was connected via telephone line with the National Bureau of Standards Univac 1108 large-scale computer, thus greatly increasing the Regon's capability.

Manpower and Youth Conservation Programs is an important unit of the Division of Operation. The Region is deeply involved in a number of manpower training programs as part of the overall effort to improve rural economy and train people to compete for jobs in the current labor market. The programs include Operation Mainstream, Neighborhood Youth Program, Concentrated Employment Program, Willing to Work and Work Incentive—all of which have a common objective—to train people for better jobs and raise them above the poverty level.

From 1965 to 1969, a highly important major program was the Civilian Conservation Centers under the Job Corps Program, administered in Region 3 by the Division of Operation. In 1971 and 1972 the Youth Conservation Corps provided practice and education in natural resource management to high school age youths.

Personnel Management

The Personnel Management program of Region 3 extends over 10 Divisions at the Regional Office level and 12 National Forests—with total employment ranging from 1700 to 2800 at the peak. This involves the 81 Ranger Districts, five Civilian Conservation Corps Centers (four now closed by Presidential order), and the Continental Divide Training Center. The Division is staffed with 18 employees in the Regional Office and twelve at the Continental Divide Training Center. Each National Forest is staffed with a personnel management specialist and one clerk to administer the personnel program.

The program as outlined by M. D. Ray, formerly Chief of the Division, has these objectives:

"To recruit and maintain a flexible, efficient, and productive force which will contribute directly and effectively to the accomplishment of the mission of the Forest Service.

"To motivate managers, supervisors and employees to render responsive service to the public.

"To improve our systems, practices and planning to obtain more effective and productive use of manpower.

"To provide a dynamic organization responsive to the accomplishment of work through people.

"To treat employees equitably and fairly and help them achieve personal satisfaction by enhancing their opportunities for career advancement through training and wise utilization of their abilities.

"To preserve the integrity and merit of the Federal Civil Service by carrying out public policy as expressed in laws, Executive Orders, and regulations."

As it has with other Divisions, increased interest and use of Forest resources has created tremendous management challenges. During the 1960's the employment level tripled to keep pace with expansion of programs and operating budget.

Job Corps Centers gave basic educational and vocational opportunities to thousands of young men and women.

The Job Corps

The accomplishments of the Job Corps in New Mexico and Arizona were considerable, and brought high praise and recognition to Region 3. From their inception until four of the five Conservation Centers, as they were formally called, were terminated on June 30, 1969, they had produced better than $6,000,000 worth of improvements on public lands.

"But the real measure of accomplishment," according to Roy Gandy, who was the Job Corps administrator in Regional Headquarters, "was in what it did for the enrollees."

Since the Job Corps was essentially a training program, corpsmen were trained on actual, live, on-the-job situations in the National Forests as construction carpenters, bricklayer apprentices, cement masons, operating engineers, production line welders, cooks, auto mechanics and forestry aids.

"The average enrollee came to the Centers with a reading level below the fourth grade," Gandy noted. "Of those who stayed six months or more at any of the centers, we placed 70 percent of them in jobs in private employment."

Four training centers were established in 1965 at Grants and Mountainair, New Mexico and Alpine and Heber, Arizona. The fifth center was established at Camp Luna, Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1966. Alpine, which operated on the Apache Forest, had a capacity of 120 corpsmen. Heber, 125 miles northeast of Phoenix in the Sitgreaves Forest, has a capacity of 210. This camp is one of the group scattered throughout the United States which was selected to remain open after the main program terminated on July 30, 1969. The Grants Center, on the Cibola Forest had a capacity of 210 corpsmen, as did the Mountainair Center, also on the Cibola. The Luna Center, on the Santa Fe Forest, had a capacity of 224 corpsmen.

"The boys came from rural areas mostly." Gandy related. "The majority were Negro boys from the deep South of Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Most of them had never been outside their own neighborhoods before. They were willing to work. They just had not had the opportunity or know-how. The work program at the centers was a totally integrated vocational training program. Work habits, safety and work attitudes were high priority training items.

"The education program consisted primarily of basic remedial education and the 3 R's. Reading and math curriculums were especially designed for the populations that the Centers attempted to serve."

How well this was accomplished is indicated by the scores in the national achievement tests given at all centers. Mountainair and Grants stood among the top five in the nation.

The Job Corps administrators can point to some outstanding examples of construction achieved. They built roads, stock tanks, range fences, worked in timber stand improvement, juniper control, and building construction.

"The Corpsmen constructed the entire Ranger Station complexes at Mountainair and Tijeras on the Cibola National Forest, each of which would have cost more than a hundred thousand dollars if built on contract," Gandy said. "They built 10 miles of the Lobo Canyon road out of Grants and did such a good basic job that the Highway department followed up and paved the 10 miles then added another five. This is primarily a recreation road, but eventually this road will probably be completed by the Forest Service and provide a short cut route between Grants and Cuba."

The accomplishments of the Job Corps are all the more notable when it is pointed out that the trainees were enrolled under the following criteria: "16 to 21 years of age; school dropouts for three months or more; unable to find or hold adequate jobs; under-privileged from having grown up in impoverished surroundings; in need of change of environment to become useful productive citizens."

In addition to the accomplishment in improvements on public lands and the success of the training programs, the Centers had a substantial economic impact on the communities where they were located. The Centers had a total budget of approximately $5 million a year—a large percentage of which found its way into the communities.

When the Executive Order from the President brought about closure of four of the Centers, two of the New Mexico Centers were turned over to the State of New Mexico to operate a branch college at Grants, and a vocational training school at Luna (Las Vegas). The Alpine Center in Arizona was turned over to the State of Arizona for use of the State Department of Corrections. The Mountainair Center was used for several projects.

The Heber Center, which was selected to continue operations, undertook a program of operating under some rather unique concepts. The Center negotiated two contracts, one with the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and another with the Painters and Decorators Union, to do training in these two vocations.

Continental Divide Training Center, opened in 1962, provided facilities for intensive training of Forest Service employees in technical and administrative skills.

Continental Divide Training Center

The Southwestern Region of the Forest Service operates its own training center at Continental Divide on the edge of the Gallup Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest.

Here in a new complex of classrooms, offices and dormitories, Forest Service employees have the opportunity to improve their skills and prepare for advancement in their chosen field. Classes are conducted throughout most of the year (except during the height of the fire season) and employees have a choice of more than 60 courses, everything from Beginning Spanish to Geodesy and Photogrammetry, and a variety of management courses.

Courses vary from four days to a month. Beginning Spanish, for example, is a four weeks course. Upon completion, the trainee will have a vocabulary of 2,000 Spanish words, be able to conjugate 100 common verbs, and have a basic idea of Spanish customs and culture. This course is designed particularly for employees in Northern New Mexico.

All new professional employees are required to take an indoctrination course, which lasts two weeks.

There is no tuition charge for Forest Service employees. Trainees other than Region 3 employees are charged $50 per course and $10 a day for room and board.

The Forest Service Museum is located at the Training Center.

The Forest Service Museum displays tools, equipment and documents used by Forest Officers.

Forest Service Museum

Undoubtedly one of the most unusual collections of historical materials in the Southwest has been brought together in the Forest Service Museum at the Continental Divide Training Center.

Here, the history of the Forest Service and its progress through 65 years of growth is told in the collection of photographs, tools, office equipment, correspondence, diaries, furniture, etc. Everything imaginable that was used by Forest Service employees is displayed, from a Washington wood-burning stove to a complete tack room. A 1910 Supervisor's office has been reproduced, complete with rolltop desk, a pioneer model Oliver typewriter, wooden files, and even a wire basket with an original letter from a Supervisor. Old style grounded telephone and exchange, a tool room, and a collection of maps, photographs and old letters enhance the collection. One panel shows an exchange of correspondence between Supervisor Fred Winn and the western author, Zane Grey, relative to arrangements for a bear hunting trip with Ben Lily, the famous bear hunter and guide.

Just outside the door is a pair of giant logging wheels such as were used in the Forests in earlier years.

The historical collection has special interest for Forest Service personnel who visit the Continental Divide Training Center, but is also attracting tourists from Interstate Route I-40. So much popular interest has been exhibited in the Museum that there is consideration for establishing it at a Visitors' Center, probably near Flagstaff.

At the Museum's dedication Chief Forester Cliff and Regional Forester Fred Kennedy try out furniture used in Forest offices in the early 1900's.

Fire Control

In the Southwestern National Forests, 2,054 men (768 regular and 1,286 part-time) are trained and constantly ready to attack forest fires whenever and wherever they occur. In addition, other firefighters are employed as needed during the year to assist the regular firefighters. In the past year, this number totalled 8,000 who were employed for one day or more.

The fire control organization consists of the basic management unit, the Ranger District; the National Forest fire team, and the Regional fire team. Should it prove impossible for the Ranger District to suppress the fire, the National Forest fire team takes over the fire control task. Each of these fire control organizations is an expansion of another. As the organization expands, the more specifically trained men are placed in individual roles to insure an efficient team operation.

The basic fire tools that were used when the Forest Service was first organized are still efficiently used-shovels, axes, and fire rakes. In addition, the fire control organization has access to a variety of newly developed fire control equipment. Fire retardant chemicals are carried by air tankers, helicopters, trucks and water pumper units. Radio communication networks are available as well as other products of our modern technological society.

From its inception in 1905 until World War II, the primary mission of the Forest Service was to protect the National Forests from fire, disease, insects, theft and depredation. Land abuse and indiscriminate burning on public lands of the West had made protection necessary to stabilize exposed and eroding soils to maintain existing forests and ranges and permit re-establishment of desirable vegetation.

The tremendous assets of the National Forests, which had hardly been tapped until they were needed by the requirements of war, went into a new phase of management use. By 1950, the management and use of National Forest resources was in full swing. The extensive harvesting of timber created additional fire hazard, requiring new methods of control.

The Forest Service in 1953 began to use fire as a tool in order to reduce the fuel volume existing in isolated areas where accumulations of dry, inflammable forests developed. Using prescribed fire, the fuel volume of these areas was reduced to the desired level. The first efforts were restrained and not always what were desired, but as attitudes about use of fire as a forest management tool changed, there was more extensive use of fire to reduce large areas of dead, dry vegetation.

This type of prescribed fire is now being used throughout the Southwest Region and has been steadily reducing some of the isolated areas of dead and highly explosive forest fuels.

Coupled with the prescribed burning program is the newly introduced fuel-break system. Together they form two parts of the three-part Conflagration Control System, which is designed to forestall escape of small forest fires or prevent their expanding into uncontrollable conflagrations.

The third part of the system is, of course, the employment of the skilled firefighters and their equipment.

No matter how modern or extensive the equipment, the real heroes of the Forest Service fire department are the Rangers, the firemen, the lookouts and equipment operators who respond to each fire emergency. Without them, forests and streams, mountains and vital soil would be lost forever, for forest and range management are impossible without fire protection.

Their dedication to their job, plus the effective use of all the resources of the Conflagration Control System, are helping to slowly overcome nature's awe-inspiring strength as witnessed in the hurricane force of large forest fires.