4712 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



This is why the Forest Service spends thousands of dollars of its appro- 

 priation each year in the construction of telephone lines. Besides those built 

 and owned by the Service, they have the free use of many miles of telephone 

 built by settlers in cooperation with the Service Free right of way and poles 

 are granted to any company, corporation, or private party to cross the forests 

 with such lines; in exchange for these privileges the Forest Service asks 

 the right to connect its lines, or to place an instrument where needed. Settlers 

 and miners are glad to have an instrument placed in their cabins free of 

 charge, the only fee required being that they notify the rangers of any smoke 

 seen in their vicinity. Ofttimes an abandoned telephone line, that has been 

 built into a once prosperous mining camp, is purchased or leased at small 

 expense. Temporary lines are often strung to some lookout point where the 

 instrument is placed in a box and nailed to a tree; such lines are generally 

 strung on trees or brush and taken down when the season is over. 



A comprehensive plan for a telephone system has been worked out for 

 each forest; few of these have been completed to date, but something is being 

 added to them each year as appropriations are available. With their com- 

 pletion, and an increased force for patrol during the dry season, a serious 

 forest fire on the national forest will be a rare occurrence. 



