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Show National Forest Rangers Have Numerous Duties Deep in primeval wilderness of Olympic National park, a National Park Service ranger makes a reading read-ing of weather recording instruments, instru-ments, at one of the stations scattered scat-tered about the park's 835,000 acres. The information he obtains he radios ra-dios back to park headquarters. This is but one of the many duties a park ranger must perform, as on horseback or afoot, he makes long and ofttimes lonely patrols of the park area. Park rangers usually are college graduates in forestry, biology or botany; obtain their appointments through exceedingly stiff civil service serv-ice examinations, and while on duty are subject to call 24 hours a day. During the forest fire danger season, sea-son, the ranger carries a "smoke-chaser" "smoke-chaser" pack, that includes a map, compass, first-aid kit, hand pump, fire tools and two days' emergency rations. He carries this outfit on his back while on patrols ranging from 5 to 20 miles a day. The ranger acts as guide, counsellor coun-sellor and friend to visitors to the national park, while at other times his portable short-wave radio is often his only means of communication communica-tion with park headquarters. He must be prepared to repair telephone tele-phone lines in the wilderness, sometimes some-times damaged by storms and falling fall-ing trees. While on the trail the ranger is his own cook. Hotcakes. bacon and eggs are standard fare, rarely fresh meat or vegetables. And at night, he beds down, his horse tethered nearby, in some mountain meadow or beside a stream. He never uses his saddle for a pillow; rolled up jeans are more comfortable. But the saddle makes a good wind-break. |