Show PERMANENT improvements ON NATIONAL MUM FORESTS six hundred thousand dollars will be spent during the fiscal year for tile the construction or of roads trails telephone lines arid and other permanent improvements on it the national forests congress has appropriated the same amount for this purpose during the fiscal year of 1909 1910 in iii older that the forest rangers may inay coer the large area contained in the district it is very necessary that a 1 system of trails be constructed along routes which give the best control of areas to be patrolled in many districts telephone lines have been built between the supervisors office and ranger head headquarters headquarter quarte rs and to prominent peaks which are used for lookout stations to observe lires fires to light fight forest fires effectively it is of tile the importance that a force of men bo be rushed to tile the fire as soon as possible as aa these fires can be controlled all put out if taken when they are small where it would be almost impossible to check them after they had spread over a large area for this reason tile the telephone lines arid and trall trail systems ire are of vital importance ind and have played no small part in the patrol system which has resulted in tile the remarkably small area burned over since the forests have been under government supervision among other necessary improvements provided for the service tales takes up the matter of tile the betterment of range conditions first by the construction st of drift fences which are tor for the purpose of keeping stock with in tile the area allotted to them hem and to save the time of the herders gerders her ders second by the improving of springs and watering places in many sec lions eions of the west large areas have been of no value on account of the lack of wat water er during a large portion of the 3 ear by the fencing and pip ing ng of the springs arid and providing adequate storage the service has been able to conserve a supply of water which enables these ranges to be used throughout the season ison third by the he fencing of bog or mire holes As fist ast as possible places the loss if int i if int i of stock from miring in ili bog holes lias has been heavy are being fenced so that the cattle cannot get into them fourth by the fencing of poisonous areas in certain sections of colorado there is a poison larkspur which luring during the aprin sprin spring season will poison stock that graze on it these places are being fenced and the stock kept away from the areas until the poisonous season is over when they are opened for grazing all of the national forests are divided into districts which are under the direct supervision of a forest ranger who looks after the timber cut ting and grazing matters and patrols his district to detect and pre ent forest fires As the national forests are located in mountainous and timbered country and have but few settlements within their boundaries it is necessary to provide these rangers with quarters convenient to the districts over which they have charge these quarters consist of a small house bouse a stable tor for ills his saddle horse a fence enclosing a pasture for his stock and occasionally anally the fencing of a small garden patch and a small piece of hay land to provide fodder tor for the stock during winter the forest also cooperates co operates with the states countiess COUntie cs and communities muni ties in the construction of wagon gon roads road trails and bridges which will make accessible bodies of matuie timber and otherwise assist in the control and use of the forests an example of this his operation cooperation co O is the boise atlanta wagon road this road connects the city of boise id with the mining filing town of atlanta a place of about inhabitants the road follows up the boise river for the entire distance with the exception of about 7 miles beginning at a point 5 miles out from boise the entire length of tile the road is about 90 IT miles I 1 I 1 es atlanta is situated in the sawtooth mountains and is go 90 miles from a railroad the former outlet was as by maeon road to the town of mountain home this I 1 road oad follows over high mountains and is snowed in dining six or seven even months of the yea year r the boise atlanta wagon road will be snowed ill hi for only two or three months of the 3 ear the road is an old project about 10 miles of it having been built out from boise some ton years ago this work was done by a fund full raised front from subscriptions taken in boise and in mn I 1 the road was extended 28 miles fro from funds appropriated by the state stale of idalio idaho this work brought the road to the boundary of the sawtooth national forest now the lie boise national forest during the summer of 1907 the people of atlanta subscribed the commercial club of boise 2500 the hie state appropriated about rid nd the forest service contributed 1000 a total of with which the old road was put in ili proper repair arid and a little less than 20 miles of very very difficult mountain road wa was s constructed through a narrow canyon which in ili many places had precipitous cip elp itous walls of rock the mcener scenery y along this road rivals that of man many y of the scenic highways this ewt rp opens up a large area ot of national forest heretofore herto fore inaccessible gives comparatively quick communication muni cation between boise the state capital and atlanta and greatly lessens the length of time that atlanta will be shut off front from communication with the outside world |