FOREST TREE PLANTING CAMPS 403 



camps of the past. They are now receiving wide pubhcity while the 

 ordinary tree-planting operations go on unheralded. In the spring of 

 1916 a newspaper man traveled 50 miles to a tree-planting camp in 

 northern Pennsylvania for the purpose of "writing up" the operation. 



7. Places men in the forest during the spring fire season. A tree- 

 planting crew of 20 to 30 men, near at hand and ready to tight forest 

 fires at any time, is a great protective asset to a forest. The spring 

 fire season is at its height during tree-planting time, and fire-fighting 

 tools are kept on hand at all the planting camps. The telephone con- 

 nection, maintained between these camps and headquarters and fire- 

 towers, facilitates the prompt calling out of the men at the early stages 

 of fires. 



These advantages of forest tree-planting camps, most of which are 

 of vital economical significance, will naturally tend both to enlarge 

 their present scope in regions where they are already established, and 

 extend their use into new fields. While present experience recommends 

 an extension of the practice, it also throws light on a number of ten- 

 dencies which should be carefully and critically examined with the 

 specific object of determining whether the development and ultimate 

 outcome of the stands resulting from the present plantations will be 

 satisfactory, or if a modification of the present procedure would be 

 productive of better results. The two principal tendencies, which seem- 

 ingly embody unfavorable features, are : 



1. The planting of remote sites before the proper economic time. 



2. The establishment of large plantations. 



1. The planting of remote sites before tJie proper economic time. 

 A tendency towards reforesting more or less remote areas previous 

 to more accessible sites, has, in so'me localities, been recently dis- 

 cernible. A number of apparently valid reasons have been advanced 

 in justification of this development. Recent stock surveys show that 

 some of the most inviting and productive areas in need of artificial 

 reforestation are located in remote regions. The high and relatively 

 inaccessible plateaus of the Allegheny mountains comprise vast level 

 areas with a fairly deep and fertile soil, and a sparse covering of 

 woody vegetation. Such existing conditions make planting relatively 

 easy, and consequently lower the cost of the operation. There may 

 also be a compelling desire on the part of the forester to establish 

 plantations in the midst of extensive denuded areas with the hope that 

 in a few years the planted areas will become oases within acres of 



