and local affairs, as it does upon his knowledge of the
forest itself. As in the case of every superior officer, his attitude
toward his work, his energy, his good sense, and his good will are or
should be reflected in the men under him, so that his position is one of
the greatest importance in determining the success or failure of each
National Forest, and hence of the Forest Service as a whole. More and
more of the trained Foresters in the Service are seeking and securing
appointments as Forest Supervisors because of the interest and
satisfaction they find in the work. Such men handle both the
professional and business sides of forest management. Many of their
duties, therefore, are described in the succeeding chapter.

The position of Supervisor is in many respects the most desirable a
trained Forester can occupy in the Forest Service, and the most
responsible of the field positions.

THE TRAINED FORESTER

To each forest where timber cutting has become important there are
assigned one or more Forest Assistants or Forest Examiners. 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.

The Forest Assistant secures his position with the Service by passing an
examination devised to test his technical knowledge and his ability.
After he has served two years as Forest Assistant the quality and
quantity of his work will have determined his fitness to continue in
the employ of the Government. If he is unfit he may be dropped, for
there are many young and ambitious men ready to step into his place. If
he makes good he is promoted to the grade of Forest Examiner and is put
definitely in charge of certain lines of professional work; always, of
course, under the direction of the Supervisor, of whom he becomes the
adviser on all problems involving technical forestry.

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. This is forestry in the technical sense of
the word. It involves a thorough study of the kinds of timber, their
amount and location, their rate of growth, their value, the ease or
di