The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-12-04
FOREST RANGERS
PREPARE FOR WINTER
Desert The Lookout and Make
Ready For The Heavy
Shows.


snowpiled reaches of 100 Federal for
est reserves a small army of forest
rangers, Uncle Sans most pistures-
que employees, are burning brush,
making trail and building bridges, in
order that timber for the multifari-
Gus uses of posterity may not perish
from the face of the earth.
Mounted on snowshoes 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
panionship, with no line of commu-
nication but the attenuated strand
OF telephone wire, which he himself
has strung behind him. For the for
est ranger is kind of ALTERNATING"
animal that works while he hiber-
mates, with the last danger of de-
structive forest fires gone with the
arrival of the heavy SHOWS, he de-
serts 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 lef by
the logging crews that cut over sale
areas and free use timber on his
range. The brush is left in piles I'M
til 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 furnishes up his snow
shoes or skis, and patches up his
hand or dog sled. A way over on the
other side of his range he knows
there is bridge that spans a noun
tain torrent, which needs consider
able strengthening to stand the
weight the breakup of the winters
ice and the spring freshets will put
upon 1t. So he loads a quarter of a
ton of bridge iron on his sled, bitches
up his dogs, shoulders provision
pack and closes up the log cabin that
he calls headquarters. He may have
to negotiate a snow-chocked pass
seven or eight thousand feet in alti-
tude, where the wet heavy snow clogs
his snowshoes and where he may
have to make three or four trips to
haul his pack over the crest.
When he arrives at his destina-
ton he may find his bridge buried
under a ten-foot drift of heavy snow,
which he will spend day penetrat-
ing. Through delays and heavy
travelling, he may find his supplies
giving out, and by the time he has
fought his way through a snowstOrm
back to headquarters he may have
been lunching for days on frozen raw
bacon. and sleeping in sOdden blank
cts under a sheltering tree.
Throughout the long winter the
ranger is kept busy with just such
jobs as these. Ten feet of snow
and bury his cabin, and he must dig
himself out and take the trail. And
he must keep everlastingly at it I'M
til the spring breakup sends him
scurrying to the high points to watch
for the curl of smoke that foretells
the coming of the forest fire.
development of the winter work
on the ranges has removed the forest
ranger from the patronage" CLASH
ficat ton in Government jobs. Form
erly Congressman were inclined to
look on the forest ranger place as a
desirable position for some constit-
uent looking for Eight outdoor
work" That time has passed, how
ever, for the forest ranger must sub
nit medical certificate showing that
he is ablebodied before he is appoint
ed AS the Forest Service puts it:
"He must be able-bodied and capa-
BILE of enduring hardships and of per-
forming severe labor under trying
conditions: able to take care of him
self and his horses in regions remote
from settlement and supplies: and
must be able to build trails and cab
ms and pack in provisions without
assistance. He must know some
thing of surveying, estimating and
scaling lumber, and the livestock
business: and i'm addition to this he
should have a eneral knowledge OF
farming and mining"