The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-11-30
FOREST RANGER
SETTLE DOWN To
WINTER WORK.
BURNING BRUSH AND DOING
OTHER WORK TO PROTECT THE
TIMBER FROM FIRES.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

1
Washington, Nov. 2s.--Out in the
snow piled reaches Of $50 Federal For
est Reserves, a small army OF Forest
Rangers, Uncle Sans most pictures
que employees are burning brush max
| ing trails and building bridges. in or
| der that timber for the multi-various
| 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 to
his winters work, far back in the
wooded hills, miles from human COM
partnership, with no line of communi-
cation but the attenuated strand of
telephone wire, which he himself has
strung behind him. For the Forest
Ranger is a kind OF ''hfoernating>' ami
NAL that works while he hibernates,
with the last danger of destructive for
est fires gone with the arrival of the
heavy SHOWS, he deserts his lookout
station, and devotes his attention to
the work. of the winter, the cleaning
up Of his range, and the maintenance of
the trails he has wrought through the
forest.
The first SHOWS start the Ranger out
to burn the brush piles left by the
logging crews that cut over sale areas,
and free-use timber OF snow insures
against the starting of forest fires
from the blazing refuse. Then it is
burned with the snow on hand as ma
lures own fire extinguisher
The ranger furnishes up his snow
shoes or skis, and patches up his hand
or dog sled. A way over on the 9TH
er side Of his range he knows there is
a bridge that spans q mountain tor
rent, which needs considerable
Strengthening to stand the weight
which the break up of the winters Ice,
and the spring freshets will put upon
it. So he loads a quarter Of a ton of
bridge iron on his sled, bitches up his
dogs, shoulders a provision pack and
closes up the log cabin that he calls
headquarters. He may have to nego-
tate a snow-cholIed pass, seven 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 pene-
traung. Through delays and heavy
travelling, he may find his supplies
giving out, and by the time he has
fought his way through snow storm
back to headquarters he may have
been lunching for days on frozen raw
bacon, and sleeping in sodden blankets
under a shelterfng tree.
Throughout the long winter the
ranger is kept busy with just such
jobs as these. Ten feet of snow may
come down from the mountains and
bury his cabin, and he must dig him |
self out and take the trail. And he |
must keep everlastingly at it Until the |
spring breakup sends him scurTying /
to the high points to watch for the |
curl of smoke that foretells the COM |
Ing of the forest fire.
Development of the winter work on /
the ranges has removed the Forest |
Ranger from the patronage classifi- |
cation in government jobs Formerly |
congressman were inclined to look on
the Forest Ranger place as desirable
position for some constituent looking
for eight outdoor work" That time
has passed however, for the forest
ranger must submit medical certificate
showing that he is able bodied before
he is appointed. AS the Forest Service
puts it:
He must be a;bIe-bodied and capa-
BILE of enduring hardships and of per-
forming severe labor under trying con-
able to take care of himself
and his horses in regions remote from
and supplies; and must De
able to build trails and cabins and
pack in provisions without assistance
He must know something of survey
ing, estimating and scaling lumber, |
and the livestock business; and in ad-
dition to this he should have a general
knowledge of farming and mining"