Outline' indicating data on completed timber-survey projects to be furnished the Forester by each district at the end of each field season (for the calendar year).

NOTE 1. The costs given should represent the total expenditures on the project. Compilation and other office work, and miscellaneous costs, such as supplies, ineffec tive days, moving, leave, travel to project, etc., should be charged directly to the activity concerned, i. e., Control, Topography, or Estimate, or prorated over them, as the case may be.

NOTE 2. Area, cost per acre, and total area to date for intensive and extensive timber surveys, by fiscal years, will be supplied on Form 446 as heretofore.

A systematic diagram map record of areas covered by inten sive timber surveys will be maintained for the Forester's and district forester's files. These maps will be kept current annually, by Forests, and should contain the following information: (1) All areas of one section or more in extent which have been covered by intensive timber surveys, whether conducted by special crews or by National Forest personnel. On each area should be entered the date when the work was done.

(2) All areas included in Forester's or district forester's sales, past and present. A number should be placed within each sale area and the designation of the sale entered under the same number on the margin of the map. In the case of con

tracts canceled before completion a line should be drawn through the number designating the sale area in question. A subsequent sale covering the same area will then be designated by another number, or changes in the boundary of the new sale can be readily indicated without confusion.

(3) Areas cut over under sale contracts indicated by hatching the proper portion.

In order to secure uniformity the data shown on maps submitted to the Forester will be indicated in the following ways:

(1) Outline and hatch areas covered by timber surveys in green ink.

(2) Outline sale areas and number them in red ink; use black ink in striking out numbers to indicate cancellation of sales before completion.

(3) Indicate cut-over areas by hatching in red ink.

The diagram maps on file in the Forester's office will be returned each winter to the districts to be brought up to date.

EQUIPMENT.

Unless other arrangements are made by the district forester, all equipment should be secured through the supervisor, who will be responsible for having a sufficient quantity of suitable and necessary instruments and other equipment, forms, supplies, etc., on hand well before the project starts. The supervisor should have sufficient advance notice from the district forester after the preparation of the plan to permit his complying with this requirement. Foresight in this respect is necessary to avoid needless and costly delays after the crew is organized.

Each district should include in its district instructions a list of standard equipment for parties of a given size. For equipment required in conducting surveys see Instructions for Making Topographic Surveys and Maps. Criticisms of equipment should be forwarded to the Forester through the district forester, accompanied by suggestions for improvement.

STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF FOREST

TYPES.

(Revised February 1, 1917.)

The following standard classification of forest types will hereafter be the basis for all descriptive and mapping work in the National Forests, including grazing, as far as possible, without necessitating a departure from the approved type classification for grazing reconnaissance. It will be used in boundary, timber survey, timber sale, and general administra tive work, and in all agricultural classification work except soil classification proper. Where further subdivision appears to be necessary in studies of yield or other investigations, approval of the new types proposed will be secured in advance.

The classification hereafter outlined is based upon the pres ent composition of the stand, regardless of whether this com position is the ultimate cover of the site or merely a temporary cover resulting from some interference with natural conditions. Where a succession of types is known to occur, either the ulti mate type or one of the stages in the succession which, as far as can now be foreseen, will be perpetuated in forest management, may, if desired, be mapped or used for purposes of management in addition to the present cover.

No attempt has been made to provide for all possible combinations of species, but a rather broad practical division has been used. Only such types as occupy sufficient area to be of importance in forest management have been included.

The name is taken wherever possible from the most distinctive commercial species or key tree occurring in the type, whether or not most of the stand is of this species.

The presence or absence of key, trees or combinations of trees will often be found helpful in determining how to classify

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any given stand. Keeping in mind the tree or trees which will be favored in cutting and the conditions which these trees require for successful growth will also assist the field men in distinguishing types.

The percentages given in the type descriptions are percentages of the number of the trees 8 inches and over in diameter, or of the trees which form the main stand and those which it is reasonable to suppose will eventually come up into the main stand. Thus, for example, in the Engelmann spruce type the young growth is often predominantly fir, alpine, or cork bark, most of which dies off before it becomes large enough to form part of the main stand. When, in a very mixed stand, the proportion of no one species comes up to the proportion named in the definition, the area will be thrown into the type which it most resembles, or the prevailing type in the immediate locality. Burns, except for repeatedly burned areas which contain neither reproduction, grass, nor brush in appreciable quantities and are classified as barren, should not be classified as a distinct type. The presence of reproduction or burned timber, or both, is sufficient to make possible their mapping in accordance with the following classification. There is no objection, however, to indicating the area of the burn if desirable or necessary by a combination of the burn and type symbols.

The terms cover, temporary, permanent, and physical types are used with the following meaning:

A cover type is a forest type now occupying the ground. The term conveys no implication as to whether the type is temporary, or permanent, or one which we shall strive to maintain under forest management.

A temporary type is a forest type which has come in as a result of some interference with natural conditions, such as fire or lumbering, and which will eventually, if nature is left undisturbed, be replaced by a different type.

A permanent type, or natural type, also called ultimate or climax type, is a forest type which eventually will take possession of and perpetuate itself on any given area if natural conditions are undisturbed.

A physical type is understood to be an area considered with reference to its forest-producing power, as determined by the physical factors of the site. It refers to the land and not to the stand, although the stand, particularly in the case of permanent types, may be an excellent indication of the physical type, and is synonymous with "site" or "locality."

No standardization of physical types is being attempted at this time, since it is felt that further investigations are neces sary to place such a classification on a sound basis. There is no objection, however, to the use by any district of such types, in addition to the forest type classification called for here, provided it is believed that such a classification is necessary, of practical value, and the data can be obtained without overloading timber survey crews.

DESCRIPTIONS OF TYPES.

TREELESS LAND.

There is no clear line of demarcation between trees and shrubs; and in this classification, which is purely for practical purposes, no attempt is made to draw a fine distinction between them. Accordingly, under “Treeless land" are included three types—“ Brush," "Sagebrush," and "Chaparral ”—which often are composed partly or entirely of individuals having tree form. but so small and stunted that the types in which they occur are classified ordinarily as treeless.

Barren.

All districts.

An area too rocky, too exposed, too arid, or at too high an elevation to support trees or grass or more than a very scattering growth of herbs and shrubs; or an area so repeatedly burned that it contains neither reproduction, grass, nor brush in appreciable quantities.

Grass.

All districts.

An area, such as a park, mountain meadow, or treeless ridge, whose principal vegetation is grass and other herbs.