MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



INTERESTING LIFE 



OF FOREST RANGERS 



The four senior students in forestry at the 

 Michigan Agricultural College have many in- 

 teresting tales to tell of how the great timber 

 reserves of the United States forest service are 

 maintained and managed. The students J. 

 Conley DeCamp of Lansing, Chester Wagner 

 of Port Huron, Irving Gilson of Deerfield, and 

 Roy Wheeler of Athens spent the summer 

 months in the employment of the United 

 States forest service, being assigned to the 

 Kootenai forest reserve in the northwestern 

 part of Montana, with headquarters in Libby, 

 Mont. The students were classed as fire 

 guards, but their work was of a much different 

 nature than the regular forest fire guard. 



The forest supervisor under whom the 

 young foresters worked was Dorr Skeels, for- 

 mer M. A. C. man. Forestry students from 

 nearly every large school in the United Stater 

 gathered at the headquarters of the Kootenai 

 reserve early in the summer to the number of 

 twenty. In addition to the four seniors who 

 took up work there this summer, there were 

 four other Michigan Agricultural College 

 men who finished their college work this 

 spring. They are Vaughn Tanner, Charles 

 Edwards, Frank McClung and G. Andrew 

 Bignell. Three of the latter will take the 

 exams for forest rangers this month and will 

 undoubtedly enter the forest service perma- 

 nently in this department. 



The seniors who have returned from the 

 West for their last year's work at the college 

 recommend the forestry life to every healthy 

 young man who likes to get next to nature and 

 an outdoor work. The service offers good po- 

 sitions at good salaries and the life is far from 

 the isolated occupation that many uninformed 

 individuals claim. 



For the first part of the summer the students 

 were occupied with boundary work. In this, 

 they surveyed different lines along the Koo- 

 tenai river and from their data and measure- 

 ments some of the disputed territory will 

 doubtless be settled. For a number of weeks, 

 thev were employed in determining the agri- 

 cultural value of different sections of land. 

 To do this, it was necessary to survey a com- 

 pass line three times through a section making 

 notes and mapping the section as they went 

 across it. In this work they were also re- 

 quired to estimate the stands of timber. Later 

 in the summer they surveyed the townships 

 which had not been laid out in sections. 



The young men were at all times subject to 

 being called out to help put out forest fires. 

 The biggest fire on which they worked was one 

 which burned over 30 acres of Western Larch 

 and Lodgepole Pine. Usually there are from 

 three to fifteen men working on a fire and it is 

 usually put out in about 24 hours, unless the 

 fire has gotten into the crowns of the trees. 

 The method employed in fighting forest fire, 

 is first to cut a wide strip with an axe in front 

 of the fire, then go through with a mattock 

 and break up all the surface roots and bushes. 

 Lastly the men take the spades and throw off 

 the mulch and leaf mould. Only the fiercest 



North Williamsburg Gravel Road, Grand Traverse County. 



Courtesy of Grand Rapids Daily Eagle. 



fires will jump across a strip cleaned out in 

 such a fashion. 



The forest service employs fire guards who 

 ride over a certain course every day, and at 

 a certain time each day these guards climb to 

 the highest point in their section and scan the 

 valleys for fires. When discovered the guard 

 at once reports to a ranger, and a crew is at 

 once called together and sent to put out the 

 fire. The system of management is as follows: 

 Fire guards who patrol the forests for fires 

 $900 per year; assistant rangers $900; deputy 

 rangers $1,000; forest rangers, $1,100; forest 

 assistants $1,100 to $1,200; deputy supervisors 

 $1,200; and supervisors $1,300 to $1,500. The 

 supervisor has direct charge of the reserve and 

 all of the men working on it. In addition to 

 keeping a lookout for fires, the guards were 

 this year instructed to gather seeds of the 

 more important of conifers. 



In addition to having many interesting ad- 

 ventures, the senior foresters gleaned some 

 very practical experience from their work in 

 the west and this experience will count for a 

 great deal in the civil service exams which they 

 will take next spring. If successful in the ex- 

 aminations, the foresters are given positions 

 as forest assistants. Prof. Baker plans to 

 have as many juniors go west next summer 

 and work on the reserves as possible and many 

 of the class have already expressed their de- 

 sire to go. 



ONLY ONE SEVERE FIRE. 



In his report to the public domain commis- 

 sion Game Warden Charles Pierce shows that 

 every railroad operating through the forest dis- 

 tricts in the northern part of the state has 

 equipped its locomotives with spark protectors 

 and fire screens. So far this year there has 

 been but one fire of any consequence. During 

 the latter part of August several thousand 

 cords of wood belonging to the Cleveland 

 Cliffs Iron Company were destroyed with a 

 loss of $30,000. 



The railroads are taking an active interest in 

 the work of preventing forest fires and em- 



ployes on several roads have been discharged 

 for removing the apparatus used for prevent- 

 ing the spread of sparks. 



So far this year Pierce has used but $2,000 

 of the $10,000 emergency fund appropriated for 

 fighting fires. The commission praised the 

 efficient and economical manner in which he 

 has conducted the work this year. 



MADE AN EXAMPLE OF HIM. 



That the way of the transgressor is hard 

 was made evident to Thomas Jacobs of Ches- 

 tonia township, Antrim county, when Deputy 

 Sheriff Sherman took a trip to his place and 

 brought him back to Mancelona to answer to 

 a charge of setting and neglecting forest fires 

 to the extent that other people's property was 

 damaged, preferred by the East Jordan Lum- 

 ber Company. The company had purchased 

 quite a qauntity of wood of Jacobs and it was 

 still in the woods and it was charged that after 

 having burned all the territory he desired to 

 burn, he neglected the fire and it destroyed 

 about 150 cords of the wood. State Deputy 

 Game, Fish and Forestry Warden E. L. Stan- 

 ford, of Boyne City, made an attempt to have 

 the matter settled, but Jacobs is said to have 

 treated the matter in rather a light manner and 

 his arrest was necessary. He was taken before 

 Justice John Wallace and fined $20 and costs 

 of $9.35. 



NO FOREST FIRES THIS YEAR. 



State Game and Forest Warden Pierce says 

 that reports from his deputies indicate that all 

 danger of any serious forest fires raging this 

 year has passed because of the frequent hard 

 rains which have swept over the northern part 

 of the state. "A year ago now," says the war- 

 den, "the fires were just beginning to be ser- 

 ious but I cannot sec how there is much dan- 

 ger this year, for everything is wet in the dan 

 ger sections and more rain is falling regu- 

 larly." 



Work has started on the new highway from 

 the Trap Rock farm district to Calumet in 

 the north end of Schoolcraft township. Hough- 

 ton County. The road will be about three 

 miles in length when completed. The region 

 through which the highway is to be built is 

 partly cleared so that there will not be much 

 clearing away of woods or underbrush. 



