The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-04-08

During the past, two years, Halfway
camp enrollees have intensively sur
veyed all lakes and streams in the sur
rounding area. During the long cold
winters, crews have gridironed the ice
coated waters, chopping holes at inter-
walls and sounding the depths to provide
accurate data for the construction of
lake bottom maps. During the sum-
mers they travelled the length and
breadth of the same lakes, mapping
! and classifying the vegetable types
covering the shores.
From the information so gathered,
after coordinating the various game and
fish census data, the game food data,
the fish yield study results, and the
lake and stream survey data, wild life
experts have at their finger tips the
raw material with which to formulate
game and fish management plans, in
surfing wealth of game for the present
and future sportsman.
Enhancing the recreational posi-
bilitieS of the forest, however, would
prove a poor investment without the
insurance provided by adequate pro-
tective measures. The red menace of
fire cloaked in the seemingly harmless
cigarette, the unmatched campfire, and
the unguarded match, turks ready to
unleash its fury on virgin stands of
timber draped in verdant GOODNESS,
leaving behind a tangled, smoldering
mass Of blackened wreckage.
During the fire fraught summer of
1886, the inestimable value of a con-
centration of trained, conditioned man
power as exemplified in Halfway camp
spelled the difference between the lay
ing waste of thousands upon thousands
O.. acres of forest lands that might have
been burned if the CCC had not been
available, and the comparatively small
acreage actually burned.
| More than a score of small fires
started by lightning and by careless
campers and smokers were nipped in
the bud. Most of them had they been
neglected for only few minutes, would
have spread disastrously.
| A factor that makes for greater eff
fiency and effectiveness in CCC fire
! fighters as compared with civilian crews
recruited on the spur of the moment
is the remarkable esprit de corps that
is prevalent in the CCC organization
Their daily routine fits them perforce
for arduouS labor and the potential
ties of each man is known in advance
Besides actual suppression of fires
the highly important function of ed
ucating the public in fire danger con-
sciousness is part of the work of the
CCC. At fish yield study stations
forest campgrounds, and other place.
where the boys come in contact with
the forest loving public, fire preventive
literature is disseminated.
A great proportion of the annual CROP
of Arrowhead tourists come from areas
where forest fires are abstract horrors
something extremely ASSOCIATED from
their daily life. The job of the CCC i!
to make them, while they are in haz.
ardouS territory, aware of the danger
and to teach them the best method.
of preventing the occurrence of fire
While fire is the most spectacular
enemy the CCC of Halfway camp com.
bat, they save thousands of acres o.
birch and aspen of high recreationa
value from annual defoliation by TIT
Forest Tentless Caterpillar or Army
Worm.
Utilizing powerful spraying machine
capable of disseminating a fine mist o
poison at the rate of 4O-60 gallons pc
minute, the boys cover infested area
around summer homes, resorts ant
parks, preventing the caterpillars from
stripping the trees of leaves, and elm
mating the inconvenience the pest
cause to the squeamish.
: Protective measures, inSuring min
imum danger of spreading fire, sucl
as the removal of existing fire hazard
: in the form of dead and down materia
along roadsides and strips adjoining
areas valuable for recreational uses o
timber growing, is an important dali
routine for the CCC.
During the winter, when the dec
snow precludeS the performance o
other tasks, most of the boys are con
centrated on the culture of crowded
stands of pine and spruce, thinning tn
trees to their correct spacing ant
liberating them from overlapping in
ferior trees and brush which hinde
free growth. The most valuable timbe
trees of the north, the white pine AM
Norway pine, are pruned of branches
which, if they are left, would impai
the quality of the lumber the trees vii
produce.
Hundreds of acres of timber Stant
improvement work has been completes
in the Halfway camp area during tn
past four years. 1t stands as FIRE
growing tribute to these pioneers o
1893.
After the disastrous MARKHAM
fire of August 1886, foresters surveyed
the vast expanse of the burned area an
decided that the broadcast sowing o
Jackpine seed would be the most prac
tical method of restocking the burn.
Accordingly, Halfway camp was al
lotted the job of gathering hundreds o
bushels of Jackpine cones during tn
winter. The cones were collected from
slash created in logging operation
throughout the camp area and sent t.
seed extraction plant. The seed wa
then shipped to the scene of the sowin
operations where it is being broadcas
over the burned area.
Symbolical is the fact that the sam
boys who Iabored day after day in in
tense heat to stem the progress of tn
fire and to finally put it out, labore'
also in the cold of a Minnesota white
to gather the seed with which to agail