Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-04-18

siennchnce tnls year, for ft 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 2O0,OOO.000 treesl Fifty years from
now this Will be merchantable timber worth
$2O,OO0.OO0 even at present low prices. But the
timber value Of these trees is not their only
value. Much of this gigantic tree-planting prof.
ect mas a dual value In that Ii provides pro-
lection OF watersheds, checks erosion and plays
an important part In flood control-all of them
conservation problems of great moment in this
country.
Who are these young Americans who have
done, and are doing. this worthwhile Job? They
are the members of Civilian Conservation corps,
called Into being last year In a special message
to congress by President Roosevelt, and their
tree-planting activity, important as 1t Is. is only
one part of the Emergency Conservation Work
program and represents only about s per cent
of the G work.
The far-reaching results of that program are
Indicated In a recent report Of Director Robert
Fechner. covering the first six months of the
CCC which appeared In q recent issue of the
forestry News Digest, published by the Ameri-
can Tree association He produces figures which
show that the Civilian Conservation corps put
In 40O.913.2 days fighting forest fires. The men
put In 202 mar days hunting for missing per
sons. These items, of course. did not come under
the mapped program. One big item In the pro
gram of the 1922 camps was planting, in which
25,750.6 acres were covered. In addition, 67.784
man days were devoted to tree nursery work
Included In the program affecting six hundred
million acres of forest land are:
Removal of inlammable fire hazards from
129,962 acres.
Construction Of 10,O58 miles of truck trails.
Construction of 5.05S miles of telephone lines.
Construction of 3,917 miles of fire breaks.
Clearing 6,629 miles of roadsides as fire pre-
vention move.
Construction of 1.7OO lookout towers, lookout
houses and tool houses.
Completion of insect pest control over sO0,150
acres.
Completion of tree and plant disease control
operations on 1,675,911 acres.
Rodent control campaigns completed on 1885, |
D18 acres.
Work performed under the general title of
forest stand improvement included thinning for
est areas to improve the stand Of valuable trees,
tree planting and construction of needed build
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 will make faster growth and the stand as
q whole will produce material Of better quality.
OuuSI HE BcHcldA HSdAAuBs WuIh pIUJSNhS GULL
pleted included:
Forest stand Improvement on 205, 159 acres.
Planting of trees upon 25.750 acres and the
partial completion of tree planting on an addi-
tional 54,115 acres.
Completion of 67,784 man days of work at
nurseries.
Construction Of 1920 bridges, BAT headquar-
tiers buildings, 300 tool houses and AZ barns.
T~oefau core~ot $na %hfrS r.a4nr nfa oesn cn tfnu |
of work projects, developed into one of 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 151 ,555 acres.
Construction of $3.50 erosion control dams to
regulate stream flow and to check the run-ofr
from heavy rains.
RevegetatIon work was completed on 1854
acres.
Soil erosion and soil saving programs have
proved of great Importance to all the c~o-operat-
ing services in this work. The forest service
with Its 162,000,0O0 acres OF forest land, the
national park service, the Indian service con
trolling several million acres OF Indian reserva-
lions, as well as state and private officials on
whose land the conservation workers have oper-
ated, all agree that the work done to save top
soil has been extremely valuable.
Forest service officials refer to this type of
work as perhaps as important as any done. Ma
tional parks officials refer to the ~erosional con-
troll program as one of the most important
undertaken by the eco.
It. A.. Silcox, chief of the forest service, states
the work performed by the G youths and
veterans has accomplished much needful nd
valuable work In the national forests, has served
to brlng. the American public closer to forestry
itself and to conservation generally. He points
out that fire losses were more than cut In half
In national forests during the first ten months
of 1888 and attributes much of this saving to
the G boys. officials stated that less than
10000 acres of national forest land was burned
over last year prior to November /, compared
with an annual average for the FIVE preceding
years Of 512,7 1903 acres.
Arno B. Cammerer. director Of the office Of
national parks, buildings and reservations, joins
with Silcox In praising the fire prevention activi-
ties Of the men. He points out the men were
largely responsible for a reduction OF the forest
fire loss In the parks of 81 per cent over the
same period Of 1882. A tremendous amount Of
conservation and general improvement work also
was accomplished In national and state parks.
improvements required for years, but fmpos-
slble Of entire achievement for ten or twenty
years In the national park areas, and probably |
not that soon In state park areas have been ac-