Arizona republican., 1914-11-30
Out in SnoW-Piled Reaches of 160 Federal Forest Re serves Small Army of Men Is Settling Down to the Winters Work.
TELEPHONE ONLY
 COMMUNICATION
Thongh Ten Feet of Snow Comes Down to Bury Him ill His Cabin He Must Dig Himself Out and Take the Trail.
ASSOCIATED PRESS DlspATcH1


 WASHINGTON, Nov 29.-Out in the snow-piled reaches of 16O federal forest reserves, a small army of for est rangers, Uncle Sam's most pie turesque employees are burning brush. making trail, and building bridges, in order that timber for the multifari- 0us uses of p0sterity may not per ish from the face of the earth.
 Mounted on snow-shoes or skis, and clothed in corduroys and mack inaw, the forest ranger has settled down to his winters work, far back in the wooded hills, miles from hu- man companionship, with no line of communication but the attentuated strand of telephone wire, which he himself has strung behind him. For the forest ranger is a kind of hi bernating' animal that works while he hibernates, with the last danger Iof destructive forest fires gone with the arrival of the heavy snows, he deserts his lookout station, and de- votes 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 snoWs start the ranger out to burn the brush piles left by the 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 Away over on the other side of his range he knows there is a bridge that spans a noun tain torrent, which needs considera- ble strengthening to stand the weight which the break-up of the winters ice, and the spring freshets will upon it. So he loads quarter of ton of bridge iron on his sled hitches up his dogs, shoulders a provision pack and closes up the log cagin that he calls headquarters. He may have to negotiate d snow -choked 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 tarrives at his destination he may find his bridge buried under ten foot drift of heavy snow which he ! will spend day penetrating. Through delays and heavy travelling, he may find his supplies giving out, and bv the time he has fought his way through a snow storm back to | headquarters he may have been 1 lunching for days on frozen raw bacon, and sleeping in sodden blank cts under a sheltering tree.
 1 Throughout the long winter the ranger is kept busy with just such 1 jobs as these. Ten feet of snow may come down from the mountains and bury his cabin. and he must dig him i self out and take the trail. And he must keep everlastingly at it until the spring break-up sends him scur- rying to the high points to watch ! for the curl of smoke that foretells the coming of the forest fire. 1 Development of the winter work on the ranges has removed the forest ranger from the patronage classi-
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