BOY SCOUTS TRAIL BUILDING 



THE United States Government, 

 always desiring to educate the 

 public on the subject of the 

 proper use and protection of 

 forests, has found a means to cooperate 

 in a practical way with the Boy Scouts 

 of America. Through arrangements 

 made by the United States Forestry 

 Service, twenty-four Boy Scouts — eight 

 from Washington, D. C., eight from 

 Baltimore, and eight from Boston — are 

 to build this coming summer a ten-mile 

 trail in a remote part of the White 

 Mountain National Forest. The plans 

 for this work and the unusual oppor- 

 tunity it provides for these boys to prac- 

 tice their Scoutcraft and learn some- 

 thing about forestry, and for the gov- 

 ernment to make more intelligent and 

 vital the interest of boys in practical 

 conservation, are described by Forest 

 Inspector K. W. Woodward, of the 

 United States Forestry Service, in an 

 article which appears, with illustrations, 

 in the June number of Boys' Life, the 

 Boy Scouts Magazine. Mr. Woodward 

 says : 



"Twenty-four Boy Scouts under the 

 direction of three Scout Masters will 

 build ten miles of trail for the United 

 States Forest Service in the White 

 Mountain National Forest this summer. 

 In return for this work the Boy Scouts 

 will be paid at a rate equivalent to that 

 which the Government would have to 

 pay for the construction of this trail 

 were the work done by the regular 

 force. 



"to camp in the valley of wild river. 



"The trail which the Boy Scouts will 

 build is intended primarily as a means 

 of protection against fire. However, it 

 will also be useful in making the White 

 Mountian National Forest more acces- 

 sible to tourists and prospective timber 

 purchasers, and parts of it may even 

 be used later on in the logging of the 

 timber through which it passes. 



"The boys will be working approxi- 

 mately ten miles from the nearest town, 



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which is Gilead, Me. They will camp 

 in the valley of Wild River, a tributary 

 of the Androscoggin River, and will 

 have two stretches of trail to build. 



"The first will be alongside of Wild 

 River and the work will consist merely 

 in the improvement of a rough trail, 

 which needs to be put into condition so 

 that horses can travel over it. 



"The second stretch of trail will be 

 located in the timber, where no means 

 of quick travel existed before. 



"a picturesque country. 



"It is unnecessary to state that the 

 region in which the boys will work, the 

 White Mountains, possesses many 

 scenic attractions. Immediately west 

 of the Wild River Valley is the Carter 

 Moriah Range, which rises abruptly to 

 a height of 5,000 feet. Ten miles west 

 of the boys' camp, as the crow flies, is 

 the summit of the Presidential Range, 

 with Mt. Washington, the highest peak 

 in the White Mountains, standing 6,300 

 feet above sea level. 



"The main stream to which Wild 

 River and the other minor streams in 

 the vicinity are tributary is the Andro- 

 scoggin, which heads in Maine, flows 

 through New Hampshire and empties 

 into the ocean in Maine. The elevation 

 above sea level along the valley of the 

 Androscoggin is approximately 1,000 

 feet, so that the rise to three or four 

 thousand feet from this stream to the 

 heights of the high mountains produces 

 very rugged topography. In fact, the 

 greater part of this locality is so steep 

 and rugged that agriculture is of minor 

 importance. 



"The forest resources are the main 

 assets. Lumbering is the principal in- 

 dustry, with the business of providing 

 for tourists who are attracted by the 

 mountain scenery second in importance. 



"Since the region has been settled for 

 more than 150 years and is one of con- 

 siderable wealth, many good roads make 

 nearly all parts accessible. Where the 

 topography is so rugged that roads are 



