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Show RANGERS TOIL IN SNOWBOUND WILDERNESS vss & - BUILD BRIDGES AND MARK JOSTjmS SCENES IN LIFE OF FOREST RANGER Top, left to right, Big Springs station in summer; foresters moving camp in winter. Below, shoveling snow from rangers' cabin to prevent pre-vent damage by its weight. ' V i. 4 "( t "-V, Life Is Lonely After Tourists Tour-ists Leave Mountains ; First Train Welcomed. W1 HLLE men engaged In commercial activities in the cities usually take their vacations during the summer months, it is during this period that the forest ! ranger puts in his longest days, with : many night vigils, in the effort, if possible, pos-sible, to locate forest fires In their incipient incip-ient stages, and, rushing to the scene, -stamp them out before they have had time to spread beyond control. His wife remains at the station, answering inquiries in-quiries of tourists and hunters, and often aesi&ts in the taking of and conveying messages to local users of the district. After the fire season the ranger turns with zest in the crisp autumn mornings 1 to the work necessary to put his headquarters head-quarters in preparedness for the isolation of a long winter season. This includes the careful survey of his telephone line, to removo any possible dead trees which threaten to fall on it and Interrupt com-I com-I munlcation, and to replace or strengthen by stubbing any fallen or weakened poles. If, as Is sometimes the case, his station is many miles from a market, he seed to It that his larder is well stocked for many months, since weeks will elapse in which his only communication with the outside world will be by his faithful tele-phono, tele-phono, an occasional snowshoo trip for mail or the rare cull of tho dog train of a trapper. Trout Are Plentiful. A typical ranger district is that with headquarters at Big Springs. Idaho, sixteen six-teen miles from the Yellowstone entrance to the Yellowstone park. The cabin Is situated on a point surrounded on three sides by the outlet to Big Springs', one of the largest spring.- in the country, whose copious How, scarcely varying in volume winter or summer, starts "a rivor sixty feet wide, waist deep. Fifty feet from tho back door, approached by steps and a landing, drinking water varying not 2 degrees in temperature 1h obtained. Probably partly on account of the uniformity uni-formity of temperature, the outlet of Big Springs is the favored resort of the rainbow rain-bow or native trout for spawning, and It here that the Idaho state fish commission commis-sion obtains the eugs for hatching at the state fish hatchery fur u.?e. In restocking the streams of Idaho. This etrg gathering Is done in the spring of the year, for while the eastern brook trout spawn in the fall, the native trout spawn iu the spring. The house, nestled In a neat fringe of lodgepole pine trees and neatly painted, with the United States flag floating above, forms a preity picture. The office is decorated dec-orated inside with forest pictures and trophies of the chase. A waJnacoting of artistically stained slabs furnishes a lesson les-son in -what can be done with eonie articles ar-ticles of mill waste. From this station Ranger MIlenthin patrols tho country round about front the base of Mi. Sawtelie and the basin about Henry's lake to the extension of the Madison plateau west of the park and the headwaters of the Moose, Buffalo and north fork of the Snake river. Winter Is Lonelj While this region Is a. paradise for pleasure seekers in the summer, the lHst train on the Yellows tone branch in October Oc-tober closes the season, and during the following six months the ranger's visitors are rare, being confined to an occasional visit of a traveler on snowsdios or with sled and dog train. The snow becomes four feet deep on the level, and deeper ju drifts, so that the in com I ng of the rotary ro-tary snow plow with two engines in May Is a Iways greeted with joy by the few year-long residents, both because of the' thrilling spectacle of the puftlng locomotive, locomo-tive, battling with the heavily packed snow, and the sense of relief from winter's seclusion by reopened communication with the outside world. A I ter t he ranger at this Btktlon has fully prepared for the winter months, when he is all but cut off from communication communi-cation with the outside world, he utilizes the occasional periods of unusually stormy weather 1o complete office work, which ha.H accumulated during tne summer, and to the construction of office furniture or other need rid equipment. The open weather, weath-er, even though it Is cold, taken advantage ad-vantage of for tho construc tion of bridges, to open roads Into tlie heart of the forest or crossing swift and treacherous streams which endanger the property and even tlie lives of settlers who are establishing homes In localities favorable for agriculture. agricul-ture. Rangers Build Road. For the last two years, and the same work will conlinue this winter, rangers on the Fayette and neighboring forests who are not urgently needed on their own districts dis-tricts during tlie whiter month t. are engaged en-gaged in the construction of a road, for many miles blasted from a granite wall, which is to form a link in the highway connecting Boise and tho Fayette and Boise river valleys with all central Idaho and tho counli-y northeast, on tho other side of the Sawtooth range. On other forests tlie surveying and marking of forest boundaries is carried on i during the winter; the trapping, poisoning poison-ing and shooting of predatory animals which menace Hie livestock grazed on the forest summer ranges; the development of watering places ao that the range ca.n be utilized to the highest possible advantage; advan-tage; the reading of enow measurements to obtain figurca concerning the annual prectpita tion and its influence on tree growth, or to estimate the probable next summer's water supply for the adjacent valleys; the crossing of timber tracts in forests where the snowfall Is not too deep nor the storms too frequent; and, In the i case of active timber operations, like the ! tlo cutting industry on the northern slope ! of the. Uinta mountains, the marking and ; Healing of timber. .,.L,.,..,mttll.i, i i , - K '"'" 'r- i 'vJ q :; , jiv pit? : . |