Forest ranger

“ A ranger must be able to ride and pack, make trail and camp, live alone in the woods, fight fire and wild beasts. Oh! It'd be great!”
“I dare say,” said father, dryly; “particularly the riding and shooting. Well, I guess you'll make a good-enough doctor to suit me.”
“Give me a square deal,” I cried, jumping up. “Mayn't I have one word to say about my future? Wouldn't you rather have me happy and successful as a forester, even if there is danger, than just an ordinary, poor doctor? Let's go over our woodland. I'll prove that you are letting your forest run down. ”

“ The reader will observe that the forest ranger’s job is that of a man and a patriot, and such a ranger was Cavanagh, notwithstanding his foreign birth. He could ride all day in the saddle and fight fire all night. ”

“ In such wise the days of the ranger were smouldering to this end.
On the backward trail he turned aside to stamp out a smoking log beside a deserted camp-fire, and again he made a detour into a lovely little park to visit a fisherman and to warn him of the danger of fire. He was the forest guardian, alert to every sign, and yet all the time he was being drawn on toward his temptation. Why not resign and go East, taking the girl with him? “After all, the life up here is a lonely and hard one, in no sense a vocation for an ambitious man. Suppose I am promoted to Forest Supervisor? ”

“ Within the memory of those of us still on the sunny side of forty the more remote West has passed from rollicking boyhood to its responsible majority. The frontier has gone to join the good Indian. In place of the ranger who patrolled the border for "bad men" has come the forest ranger, type of the forward lapping tide of civilization. ”

“ The protective force [37] was therefore about one man for every 77,800 acres or about 121 square miles.
The Forest Ranger must be a man who is physically sound and capable of enduring great hardships. He is often required to do heavy manual labor in fighting fire under the most trying conditions. For this reason he must have great endurance. They are usually men who have been brought up in timber work, on ranches or farms, or with the stock business. ”

“ Each year sees the Old West diminish, and already, in the work of the Forest Service, law and order advance. Notwithstanding all the shouting of herders and the beating to death of sheep, no hostile shot has ever been fired within the bounds of a National Forest. In the work of the forest rangers lies the hope of ultimate peace and order over all the public lands. ”

“ This was the signal box of the Forest Rangers connecting with Lake Tahoe, five miles away, Truckee, eight miles, Shaffer's Mills, five miles and thence to Brockway, six miles. In the direction we were going it was but one mile to the ranger's log-cabin in Round Meadow.
In the winter time the ranger often finds it difficult to keep the line in operation. The damp snow falling upon the wire, clings to it, freezes and keeps receiving additions until it is bigger than a man's arm, and the weight breaks it down. ”

“ That leaves one ranger, and he must watch over the whole forest.
“And do we have to expect everything from the forest ranger? Said Costas. What do we do? Anyone who passes here must guard the forest. Each person, wherever he is, must protect it as much as he can. ”

“ Before Black Bear and his savages could draw their attention from the Aerial Demon—which in a moment, almost, had passed over the camp and disappeared—the daring ranger leaned forward in his stirrups—placed his arm about Silvia’s waist—lifted her from the ground as though she had been an infant—whirled his animal southward and dashed away into the gloom of the forest, pursued by Black Bear and his warriors. ”

“ Virginny, this is Forest Supervisor Redfield, and this is Ross Cavanagh, his forest ranger in this district. You ought to know each other. My girl’s just back from school, and she don’t think much of the Fork. ”

“ I went into the cattle business like many another, and I went broke. I served under Colonel Roosevelt in the Cuban War, and after my term was out, naturally drifted back. I love the wilderness and have some natural taste for forestry, and I can ride and pack a horse as well as most cowboys, hence my uniform. I’m not the best forest ranger in the service, I’ll admit, but I fancy I’m a fair average. ”

“ Each ranger district is in charge of a forest ranger who has an area of from 100,000 to 200,000 acres in his charge.
The National Forests are, for the most part, located in the mountainous region of the West, with small scattered areas in the Lake States, and the White Mountains, Southern Appalachians and Ozarks of the Eastern and Southern States. Many of them are a wilderness of dense timber. It is a huge task to protect these forests against the ravages of fire. Fire fighting takes precedence over all other work in the National Forests. ”

“ The three boys, whose names we already know, have just finished their junior year in high school, and while wondering what to do for their last vacation together, are told by Garry’s father, a wealthy timberland owner, that he will get them places in the Maine Forest Ranger Service.
The duty of the men on this service is to patrol the forests constantly on the lookout for forest fires, and if any are discovered, to report them promptly, as well as trying to do what they can to put out the blaze. ”

“ We have our whistles, our sticks and our bags. We can go to the Small Village and to Petra and to the woodcutters.
—That would be good work, said the forest ranger.
—And we will stand guard, said Andreas. Don't see us as children; we are twenty-six.
The forest ranger looked at the children curiously. He saw they were suntanned; they appeared courageous. Andreas seemed to know how to lead. ”

“ Cain’t you-all figger out some way to get rid of them, now that you’ve figgered this out so purty?”
“I don’t think you’ll have much trouble with the Red Rock ranger station after this, boys,” Otis laughed. “You see, I put in my application for a job as forest ranger months ago. Fyffe’s death leaves the first vacancy.
“I was talking it over with Mariel as we rode down here from the ranger cabin this morning. You can be sure of a square deal all right from some one who has the stockmen’s interests at heart. ”

“ The outfit of the American forest-ranger is unique. He is usually provided with a rifle and revolver, but in addition to this has a kit of fire-fighting tools, as well as other implements. Entering one of the little cabins which form the homes of the rangers you will see coils of rope hanging from the walls, and axes and shovels piled in the corners. ”

“ She turned Pedro, and, followed by Carver and Vivian, rode back up the trail, while the others kept on down the mountain side toward Sagebrush Point where they were to meet Malcolm and Aunt Nan.
They had ridden far up Bear Canyon, miles beyond the farthest bear-trap, to the Forest Ranger’s cabin. The trail was wilder than six of them had ever imagined a trail could be. Sometimes it was almost obliterated, but the blaze of the rangers with its U.S. brand told them that human beings had traversed it, and that they might safely follow. ”

“ Who taught you to make a double lean-to in that fashion?"
"Why, we've made rather a study of woodcraft, and this is not our first experience in the woods," answered Garry. Then thinking of a way in which he could let the old timer know that they were not merely adventurous, inquisitive boys, he decided to reveal to George Washington Dudley the fact that they were members of the Forest Ranger Service, [Pg 76] but to keep a secret the fact that they were also on Customs duty. ”

“ When the Forest Supervisor receives such estimates and plans from each of his Forest Rangers he studies them over carefully and tries to decide in an impartial way what improvements are most necessary in each Ranger district and what additional men are necessary for the adequate protection of the region in question. ”

“ In the next place, your Forest ranger is not clothed with the authority to back up his fight which the N.W.M.P. man possesses. In theory, your ranger is a United States marshal, just as your Mounted Policeman is a constable and justice of the peace; but when it comes to practice, where the N.W.M.P. has a free hand on the instant, on the spot, to arrest, try, convict and imprison, the Forest ranger is ham-strung and hampered by official red tape. For instance, riding out with a ranger one day, we came on an irate mill man who opened out a fusillade in all the profanity his tongue could borrow. ”

“ Every man in the service, I don’t care what his technical job is, should be schooled in taking care of himself in the forest and on the trail. I often meet surveyors and civil engineers—experts—who are helpless as children in camp, and when I want them to go into the hills and do field work, they are almost useless. The old-style ranger has his virtues. Settle is just the kind of instructor you young fellows need.”
Berrie also had keen eyes for his outfit and his training, and under her direction he learned to pack a horse, set a tent, build a fire in the rain, and other duties. ”

“ The man is burning up, and hasn’t much vitality to spare. I knew a ranger had to be all kinds of things, cowboy, horse-doctor, axe-man, carpenter, surveyor, and all the rest of it, but I didn’t know that he had to be a trained nurse in addition. ”

“ Cavanagh, to divert her, pointed away to the mountains. “There is my dominion. Up there I am sole ruler. No one can litter the earth with corruption or poison the streams.”
She did not speak, but as she studied the ranger her face cleared. “It is beautiful up there.”
He went on. “I hate all this scrap-heap quite as heartily 27 as you do, but up there is sweetness and sanity. The streams are germless, and the forest cannot be devastated. That is why I am a ranger. ”

“ The young ranger seemed ill at ease within the stockade, and contrary to the wishes of the settlers, he soon took his departure.
“I can not bear the confinement of the settlement,” he said, on leaving the post. “I feel freer when roaming on the great prairie ocean, or threading the shadowy aisles of the forest.”
He rode away toward the north when he left the post, on the trail of the defeated red-skins.
To the surprise of the settlers, on going to inter the body of the slain enemy, they found that it was the body of a white man in Indian disguise. ”

“ Next to the protection of his District from fire, the most important duty of the Ranger has to do with the sale of timber and the marking of the individual trees which are to be cut. The reproduction of the forest depends directly on what trees are kept for seed, or on how the existing young growth is protected and preserved in felling and swamping the trees which have been marked for cutting, and in skidding the logs. The disposal of the slash must be looked after, for it has much to do with forest reproduction, and with promoting safety from fire. ”

“ The brow of the young ranger darkened.
“Yes,” he fairly groaned. “Dick is doomed to die. They are leading him into the forest. They intend to hang him—hang him! A rope is already around his neck. There is no mercy in their hearts. Border justice knows no mercy.”
As he spoke, he kept the spy-glass leveled upon the party of settlers, who, filing out of the stockade, moved down to the river bank. Here they embarked in a number of canoes for the opposite shore, and not until they had landed and plunged into the leafy depths of the forest did the ranger lower his glass. ”

“ The cow-boss is raising oats, the cowboy is pitching alfalfa, and swearing horribly as he blisters his hands. Some of the rangers at the moment are men of Western training like Ross, but whose allegiance is now to Uncle Sam. With others that transfer of allegiance is not quite complete, hence the insolence of men like Gregg, who think they can bribe or intimidate these forest guards, and so obtain favors; the newer men are college-bred, real foresters. But you can’t know what it all means till you see Ross, or some other ranger, on his own heath. ”

“ Nearly all of these duties the Ranger may perform in certain cases without supervision, if his judgment and training are sufficient, but the marking especially is often done under the eye or in accordance with the directions of the technical Forester, whose duty it is to see that the future of the forest is protected by enforcing the conditions of sale. ”

“ Save yourself for the girl’s sake!” and turning, the man glided away into the forest.
At this instant, Echo, the eagle, appeared over his master’s head, and uttered a wild scream which the ranger knew to be his signal of approaching danger, and speaking to his animal, he dashed away down the stony hill with a score of mounted Cheyennes thundering after him.
The ranger shaped his course back toward his hidden home, for the language of the madman, Solomon Strange, had so fearfully impressed his mind that he could not pursue the search for Silvia’s father until he had had time for reflection. ”

“ I’m just a broken-down old cow-puncher herdin’ sheep in order to keep clear of the liquor belt.” 159
This seemed reasonable, and the ranger remarked, by way of dropping the subject: “I’ve nothing to say further than this—obey the rules of the forest, and you won’t get into any further trouble with me. And as for being shot up by the cow-men, you’ll not be disturbed on any national forest. There never has been a single herder shot nor a sheep destroyed on this forest.” ”

“ That’s part of a ranger’s job. We have no ‘servant problem’ to contend with.”
“Do you expect to do this always?”
He smiled again. “There you touch my secret spring. I have the hope of being Chief Forester some time—I mean we all have the prospect of promotion to sustain us. The service is so new that any one with even a knowledge 31 of forestry is in demand; by and by real foresters will arise.”
She returned abruptly to her own problem. “I dread to go back to my mother, but I must. Oh, how I hate that hotel! I loathe the flies, the smells, the people that eat there, the waiters—everything!” ”