Improvement Systems Cost 247 



Most foresters will today admit that their forest is poorly pro- 

 tected if it requires as much as five hours to reach any spot 

 desired after leaving the nearest point on trail or road. Assum- 

 ing a travel rate of 2 miles an hour, on foot, across country, 5 

 hours travel defines an approximate rectangle bounded by trails 

 20 miles apart. This is very obviously very inadequate improve- 

 ment. If 2 hours travel from a trail is the maximum to be 

 allowed, an approximate rectangle of trails having 8 miles to 

 the side is defined. Were a township bounded by trail, and 

 of uniform topography and stand, it would take about 1.5 hours 

 travel to reach the SE corner of Section 16. If the township 

 were bounded by road and bisected in both directions by trail, a 

 crew could be brought from a distance of over 20 miles so as to 

 reach the SE corner of Section 16 in about two hours, or Sec- 

 tions 8, 11, 26 or 29 in still less time. That is, a crew could 

 leave some road or trail at a number of points, and reach any 

 interior point in the township without traveling over a mile and 

 a half. Such a condition would involve about twelve miles 

 each of road and trail per township and would certainly be 

 considered as very intensive development, as compared with 

 average conditions obtaining in our forests today. 



With such an improvement system, the problems of fire pro- 

 tection would be vastly simplified and the losses could certainly 

 be made negligible. But could such an intensive system be justi- 

 fied? Certainly it would run into money very fast. Good grav- 

 eled roads can be constructed through most of our forests for 

 a cost of $3,000 a mile, or less, including bridges. With 12 miles 

 of road per township the first cost would be $36,000. The aver- 

 age good trail will cost about $75 per mile. Twelve miles of 

 trail per township then cost $900. Total for roads and trails 

 $36,900. 



Other protective improvements to support the roads and trails 

 will be necessary. Carrying out the improvement scheme in 

 the same degree of intensity, allow a well developed Ranger 

 station to every four townships. A well equipped station should 

 be such a place as will permit men to live in comfort and content. 

 (There are only a few of them in America today.) For the 

 station, allow residence $1,500, bunk-house $500, barn and vehicle 

 sheds, etc., $1,000, tool and work-shop with equipment $500;. 



