Bisbee daily review., 1914-11-29
FOREST RANGERS HAVE
 BEGUN THEIR FIGHT ON THE SNOWY FIELDS
Winters Work Entails Clearing up Of the Range and the Main
 tenance of Trails Which Have Been Opened Through Forests

~f~'iSN iiN bN8ii VI goAo
 WASHINGTON, Nov 2S. Out in the snow piled reaches of t6O federal forest reserves. small army of for. est ranchers Uncle Sam's most pie. turesque employees are burning brush. making trails and building bridges. in order that timber for the multifarious uses of posterity may not perish from the face of the earth.
 Mounted on snow shoes or skis and clothed in corduroys and mackinaw the forest ranger has settled down 10 his winters work, far back in the wooded hills, miles from human companionship, with no line of com munication but the attenuated strand lt telephone wire. which he himself las strung behind him. For the for ast ranger is a kind Of hibernatingr
 nimal that works while he hibernates With the last danger of destructive|
 crest fires gone with the arrival ofI he heavy snows. he deserts his look 'ut sation and devotes his attention
 Q the work of the winter. and clean
 ng up of his range, and the mainten lnce of the trails he has wrouqhtI trough the forest.
 The first snows start the ranger out to burn the brush piles left by he logging crews that cut over sale areas and free use timber on his range. The brush is left in piles until a wet blanket of snow insures against the starting of forest fires from the blazing refuse. Then it is burned with the snow on hand as natures own fire extinguisher.
 The ranger furbishes up his snow shoes or skis, and patches up his hand or dog sled A way over on the 'tAer s.to of his range he knows there is 2 bridge that spans a mountain torrent which needs considerable strengthening to stand the weight which the break up of the winter ice and the spring freshets viii put upon it So he loads a quarter of a | ton of bridge iron on his sled. hitches up his dogs shoulders a provision hack and closes up Che log cabin. thai he calls headquarters He may have to negotiate snow-choked pass, sev en or eight thousand feet in altitude where the wet heavy snow clogs his snow shoes. and where he may have to make three or four trips to haul his pack over the crest When he arrives at his destination he may find his bridge buried under a ten-foot drift of heavy snow which he will spend a day penetrating Through delays andl heavy travelling he may find his sup plies giving out and by that time he has been lnching for days on frozen raw bacon and sleeping in sodden blankets under sheltering tree.
 Through the long winter the rsngerl i5 kept busy with just such jobs as these Ten feat of snow may come down from the mountains and bury his cabin, and he must dig himselfI out and take the trail And he must keep everiastingly at it until the
 spring breakup sends him scurryng to high point to watch for the curl ofI smoke that foretels the coming of heI forest fire
 Development of the winter work on the ranges has removed the Forest. Ranger from the patronage" classid. cation in government jobs Formerly congressman were inclined to look on the Forest Ranger place as a desirable position for some constituent looking for Tight outdoor work" That time has passed however for the forest ranger must submit medical certif cate showing that he is able-bodied before he is appointed As the Forest Service puts it:
 "He must be able-bodied and capa ble of enduring hardships and of per forming severe labor under trying conditions; able to take care of him self and his horses in regions re- mote from settlement and supplies and must be able to build trails and. cabins and pack in provisions without assistance He must know something of surveying, estimating and sealing lumber, and the livestock business; and in addition to this he should have general knowledge of farming and mining