No. 6.  North Pacific District, Portland, Oregon. 
(Washington and Oregon.)

No. 7.  Eastern District, Washington, D.C. 
(Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New
Hampshire, Maine, and Porto Rico.)

No. 8.  Alaska District, Juneau, Alaska. 
(Alaska.)

Each of the National Forests is under the direct supervision of a forest supervisor and is split up into from 5 to 10 or more ranger districts.  Each ranger district is in charge of a forest ranger who has an area of from 100,000 to 200,000 acres in his charge.

The National Forests are, for the most part, located in the mountainous region of the West, with small scattered areas in the Lake States, and the White Mountains, Southern Appalachians and Ozarks of the Eastern and Southern States.  Many of them are a wilderness of dense timber.  It is a huge task to protect these forests against the ravages of fire.  Fire fighting takes precedence over all other work in the National Forests.  Lookout stations are established on high points to watch for signs of fire.  Airplanes are used on fire patrol over great areas of forest.  Where railroads pass through the National Forests, rangers operate motor cars and hand-cars over the tracks in their patrol work.  Launches are used in Alaska and on some of the forests where there are large lakes, to enable the fire fighters and forest guardians to cover their beats quickly.  Every year the National Forests are being improved and made more accessible by the building of permanent roads, trails and telephone lines.  Special trails are built to and in the fire protection areas of remote sections.  A network of good roads is constructed in every forest to improve fire fighting activities as well as to afford better means of communication between towns, settlements and farms.  The road and trail plan followed in the National Forests is mapped out years in advance.  In the more remote sections, trails are first constructed.  Later, these trails may be developed into wagon or motor roads.  Congress annually appropriates large sums of money for the building of roads in the National Forests.  Over 25,000 miles of roads and 35,000 miles of trails have already been constructed in these forests.

Communication throughout the National Forests is had by the use of the telephone and the radio or wireless telephone.  Signalling by means of the heliograph is practiced on bright days in regions that have no telephones.  Arrangements made with private telephone companies permit the forest officers to use their lines.  The efficient communication systems aid in the administration of the forests and speeds the work of gathering fire fighters quickly at the points where smoke is detected.