The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1934-04-19

"plant trees.
- That commandment has special
significance this year for 1t has been needed
BY several thousand husky young Americans to
such good effect that before the year Is ended
they Will have planted some 100000 acres with
more than 2O00O00O0 trees! Fifty years from
now this will be merchantable timber worth
500 100000 even at present low prices. But Tie
timber value of these trees Is not their only
value Much of this gigantic treeplanting prof.
ect has dual value In that 1t provides pro-
lection of watersheds. checks erosion and plays
an important part In flood control-all OF them
conservation problems of great moment III lhls
country.
who are these young Americans who have
DONE and are doing, this worthwhile job2 ihey
are the members of Civilian Conservation corps,
called into being last year In a special message
to congress by President Roosevelt, and their
treep planting activity, important as It is, IS ohiy
one part of the Emergency Conservation Nork
program and represents only about per cent
of the CCC work.
The far-reaching results OF that program are
indicated In a recent report OF Director robert
Fechner covering the first six months Oh tne
Gee which appeared In a recent issue OIL the
Forestry News Digest, published by the Ameri-
can Tree association He produces figures which
show that the Civilian Conservation corps put
in 4OO913o days fighting forest fires. Inc men
nut In 2o2 man days hunting for missing per-
sons These items, of course, did not come uhaer
the mapped program One big Item ID the pro-
gram OF the 1872 camps was planting, IN Which
o5.75O6 acres were covered. In addition, 6i,fS4
man DAYS were devoted to tree nursery work.
Included In the program affecting Six huhored
million acres of forest land are.
Removal OF nflammable fire hazards from
10000 acres.
~ fruek
Construction OF 505s miles of telephone lines.
Construction Of 3,o17 miles OF fire breaks
Clearing e629 miles of roadsides as fire pre-
vention
Construction Of Il roo lookout towers. lookout
houses and tool houses.
Completion OF insect pest control over ooo,loo
acres.
Completion OF tree and plant disease control
operations on 1675,9I1 acres.
Rodent control campaigns completed on o,ooo'-
918 acres.
Work narformed under the general title OF
forest stand Improvement included thinning lot
est areas to improve the stand OF valuabie trees
tree planting and construction or neeueu ouiiu-
ings and bridges The general aim OF THIS forest
stand Improvement was to put the stand OF
timber into such condition that the desirable
trees win make faster growth and the stand as
d whole will produce material Of better quality
Under this general heading, work projects COM
pleted included
Forest stand Improvement on 205,159 acres
Planting OF trees upon 25750 acres and the
partial completion Of tree planting on an aoul-
tional 54,115 acres.
COMPLETION Of 67,7S4 man days OF work at
nurseries,.
Construction OF 1920 bridges BAT headquar-
ters buildings, 308 tool houses and Al barns.
Erosion control, the third major classification
of work projects developed into one or the
most important phases OF the program. Major
work performed In this field Included:
Completion of erosion control on 3SS,o34 acres
and the partial completion of control work on
an additional 1850 acres
Construction OF 68, 450 erosion control dams to
regulate stream flow and to check the run-oT
from heavy rains,
Ravepetaton work was completed on 21,53a
acres
Soil erosion and soil saving programs nave
nroved of great Importance to all the co-operat
inc services In this work. The forest service
with Its 1620O0,00O acres OF forest lana, lns
national park service the Indian service con
trolling aeyeral million acres OF Indian reserva
tions. as well as state and private officials OF
whose land the conservation workers have oper
ated, all agree that the work done 10 save Top
soil has been extremely valuable.
Forest service officials refer to this type 9
work as perhaps as important rs any done ma
tional parks officials refer to the eroslonal cor
troll program as OF the most lmportah
undertaken by the CCC.
f. A. Silcox, chief OF the forest service state
the work performed by the CCC youths an
veterans has accomplished much needful an
valuable work In the national forests, has serve
10 bring the American public closer to forestr
itself and to conservation generally He poln
ont that fire losses were more than cut In ma
In national forests during the first ten monti
of 1893 and attributes much Of this saving
the CCC boys Officials stated that less thi
150O0O acres of national forest land was burns
over last year prior to November l. Compare
with an annual average for the five precedii
years or 512,793 acres.
Arno B. Cammerer, director OF the ONCE
national parks, buildings and reservations Jol
with Scox in prasing the fire prevention acti
ties Of the men. He points out the men we
largely responsible for a reduction OF the fore
fire loss In the parks Of 81 per cent over I
came period Of 1882. tremendous amount
conservation and general Improvement work a
was accomplished In national and state parks
improvements required for years. but imp
sibe OF entire achievement for ten or twer
years In the national park areas, and proba