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Show j "Plant Trees!"- And the C. C. C. has 200,000,000 of Them! TM P F Is, Z Z r s? v. f 1 f f a I ' n ' y' T . t i ' - , l I ' v' s. - 1 , " ' . " v ' i U 1 I ' ' J . - 'vr '7 X vx?; - m " " v - i (g) . 1. Pack train arriving with , .JOT food supplies at Camp F-8, Ara- ' ' . , ' -:sCJ-iil . paho national forest, Wyoming. XCT fHP' 2. Charles Lathrop Pack, pres- ISMnKl'M ?j4 4111 ident of the American Tree asso- f ) f ' ' vi j I" I S ciation and a pioneer in the 1 U i M "Plant Trees!" movement. V, f tfMS if 3. Powder crew drilling holes X f k , f VM M5 iHV on truck trail construction, Cleveland national forest, Cali- . Hflgf 4. Scattering poisoned grain for KS! ground squirrel eradication, MtTTlli WHtrsl"f Cleveland national forest, Cali- 7- 4 4 1 'JVC fornia. . 5. Erosion control dam under V.lifeV construction at Camp F-19, Medi- V"v lJ cine Bow national forest, Wyo- X&JJ ' mmg. V. . , W 7x V, (All pictures, courtesy Amerl- Vf.wffl can Tree association.) ( ?i JV. V-v si5-' ". fy&i- 1 By ELMO Sl.OTT WATSON J"-l LTIIOUG11 the date for the celebra-ff celebra-ff , LplS t'"n of Arbor day varies in the 15.;... f-L different slates, more than half of ,i. ' cl'fi"1 observe it in either April or '.V.-pH May and everywhere the spirit of ?--v.-V tlie ,,ay ls tlie same. It Is summed A' s'pyuD 1,1 l'ie commandment which all f V' i ' good Americans should heed "Plant trees!" That commandment has a special significance this year, for it has been heeded by several thousand husky young Americans to such good effect that before the year is ended tliey will have planted some 200,000 acres with more than 200,000,000 trees! Fifty years from now this will be merchantable timber worth J20,( i! 10,000 even at present low prices. But the timber value of these trees is not their only value. Much of this gigantic tree-planting project proj-ect lias a dual value In that it provides protection pro-tection of watersheds, checks erosion and plays an important part in flood control all of them conservation problems of great moment in this country. Who are these young Americans who have done, and are doing, this worth-while job? They are the members of Civilian Conservation corps, railed Into being last year in a special message to congress by President Roosevelt, and , their tree-planting activity, Important as It Is, Is only one part of the Emergency Conservation Work program and represents only about 5 per cent of tlie CCC work. The far-reaching results of that program are Indicated In a recent report of Director Robert Fechner, covering the first six months of the OCC which appeared In a recent issue of the Forestry News Digest, published by the American Ameri-can Tree association. lie produces figures which show that the Civilian Conservation corps put in 400,913.2 days fighting forest fires. The men put In 202 man days hunting for missing persons. per-sons. These Items, of course, did not come under the mapped program. One big item in the program pro-gram of the 1,522 camps was planting, In which 25,750.6 acres were covered. In addition, 67.7S4 man days were devoted to tree nursery work. Included in the program affecting six hundred million acres of forest land are: Removal of inflammable fire hazards from 129,962 acres. Construction of 10.05S miles of truck trails. Construction of 5,058 miles of telephone lines. Construction of 3,917 miles of fire breaks. Clearing 6,629 miles of roadsides as fire prevention pre-vention move. Construction of 1,700 lookout towers, lookout houses and tool houses. Completion of insect pest control over S00.150 acres. Completion of tree and plant disease control operations on 1,675,911 acres. Rodent control campaigns completed on 3,566,-91S 3,566,-91S acres. Work performed under the general title of forest stand improvement Included thinning for- est areas to improve the stand of valuable trees, tree planting and construction of needed buildings build-ings and bridges. The general aim of this forest stand improvement was to put the stand of timber Into such condition that the desirable trees will make faster growth and the stand as a whole will produce material of better quality. Under this general heading, work projects completed com-pleted Included : Forest stand improvement on 205,159 acres. Planting of trees upon 25,750 acres and the partial completion of tree planting on an additional addi-tional 54,115 acres. Completion of 67,784 man days of work at nurseries. Construction of 4,299 bridges, 347 headquarters headquar-ters buildings, 308 tool houses and 47 barns. Erosion control, the third major classification of work projects, developed into one of the most important phases of the program. Major work performed in this field Included : Completion of erosion control on 3SS.034 acres and the partial completion of control work on an additional 151,555 acres. Construction of 68,450 erosion control dams to regulate stream flow and to check the run-off from heavy rains. Revegetation work was completed on 21,534 acres. Soil erosion and soil saving programs have proved of great Importance to all the co-operating services in this work. The forest service with its 162,000,000 acres of forest land, the national park service, the Indian service controlling con-trolling several million acres of Indian reservations, reserva-tions, as well as state and private officials on whose land the conservation workers have operated, oper-ated, all agree that the work done to save top-soil top-soil has been extremely valuable. Forest service officials refer to this type of work as perhaps as important as any done. National Na-tional parks officials refer to the erosional control con-trol program as one of the most Important undertaken by the CCC. F. A. Silcox, chief of the forest service, states the work performed by the CCC youths and veterans has accomplished much needful and valuable work In the national forests, has served to bring the American public closer to forestry itself and to conservation generally. He points out that fire losses were more than cut in half In national forests during the first ten months of 1933 and attributes much of this saving to the CCC boys. Officials stated that less than 150,000 acres of national forest land was burned over last year prior to November 1, compared with an annual average for the five preceding years of 512,793 acres. Arno .B. Cammerer, director of the office of national parks, buildings and reservations, joins with Silcox In praising the fire prevention activities activi-ties of the men. He points out the men were largely responsible for a reduction of the forest fire loss in the parks of 37 per cent over the same period of 19.,2. A tremendous amount of conservation and general improvement work also was accomplished in national and state parks. Improvements required for years, but impossible impos-sible of entire achievement for ten or twenty years In the national park areas, and probably not that soon In state park areas have been ac- complished or are in the process of accomplishment. accom-plishment. As a result, generations to come will derive social benefits from our great recreational recrea-tional areas almost undreamed of 'when these reservations were established. Removal of brush and dead timber from national na-tional and state park areas not only reduced the ,fire hazard but enhanced the scenic value of the parks. Trails were extended, roadsides improved through planting and erosion control, camp grounds for the private motorist laid out and fireplaces and other recreational facilities for the motorist provided. In many states, land which was of little value in its present state was converted into valuable state park property. State park development programs were pushed ahead for five or ten years. Much valuable soil erosion and soil saving work was accomplished by the Indians on Indian reservations. John Collier, commissioner of Indian In-dian affairs, states, the capital value of the Indian lands has been increased $2 for every $1 spent The white pine blister rust, one of the most serious menaces to the nation's 20,000,000 acres of valuable white pine, represented pne of the major objectives of the forest army. The great bulk of the work done was accomplished accom-plished during the months of July, August and September in 1933, as the strength of the forestry army did not reach its peak of around 300,000 until the middle of July. The report does not Include the large amount of forest work that was done in October and November, as accurate figures fig-ures on this period were not available when Mr. Fechner made his report. Twenty-eight camps containing 5,600 veterans did flood control work under the supervision of the chief of engineers of the War department. Of the 1,522 camps in the continental United States, 1,250 were under the supervision of the forest service, 175 under the office of national parks, buildings and reservations, 71 under the bureau of Indian affairs, 28 under the chief of engineers, three under the bureau of biological survey of the Department of Agriculture, and one under the general land office. On the Importance of all this work, the New York Times In an editorial headed "Trees and the Man" commented recently as follows: "It will take years to show what mobilization of the unemployed has done for the forests and woodlands wood-lands of the United States. Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the American Tree association, associa-tion, estimates that the, work of these forest workers will mean the annual saving of hundreds hun-dreds of millions of dollars. The program calls for tree planting over burned and cleared areas, the thinning out of undesirable trees, the eradication eradi-cation of Insects and diseases that destroy great numbers of trees, flood control and protection against soil erosion, making trails to help in fire-fighting, building lookout towers and emergency emer-gency fire control landing fields, and the clearing clear-ing of grounds for camping and other recrea- tional uses. "This Is a sort of war that science and religion, reli-gion, pacifist and materialist, practical man and poet may unite in supporting. It is a war against the real enemies of man. These young men have been characterized by President Roosevelt as 'the vanguard of a new spirit.' They are In a very true sense pioneers in the recovery of lost provinces that lie within our national borders. If It be said that they were drafted, the answer Is that they are all volunteers In their willingness willing-ness to work. They are living on a 'garrison ration' and are 'happy again.' As a letter to the editor from one of this army says: 'I'm giving value received for what I get. I'm earning my way. I'm not on charity.' The value received that he gives will not all be immediately available avail-able but the dividends will come in due time. "The benefit to the forest worker, however, Is Instant. There are more than 300,000 of these young men In the more than 1,500 camps across America. President Roosevelt, looking Into their faces at one of them recently, said that one had but to see them to know that 'the camps are a success.' Their chief success is, after all, not In the trees which these young foresters are saving or are planting for the future, but In the new spirit, vigor and hopefulness of the men themselves. them-selves. When the epic story of this period comes to be written, it may even begin with 'Trees and the Man I sing.' At any rate, the trees will have had a proud part in it." Even more interesting than the foregoing test!- mony to the importance of this work is the testimony testi-mony of Mr. Pack himself. Writing under the bead of "Auditing the CCC Ledger" in a recent issue of the Review of Reviews and World's Work, he said in part: "More than two hundred million dollars will have been poured into this conservation hopper by next spring. Out of one spout has come a satisfactory flow of human benefits. Out of the others there have come constantly increasing streams of economic benefits and conservation value. "Under the federal foresters particularly there have been amazing results. Some of these are tangible and visible today ; others are investments in the future. Fire, insects and disease are the three great enemies of our forest resources. The average annual loss from fire is estimated to be fifty-three million dollars or the burning over of about forty-one million acres of forested land. The CCC has made possible a great extension of the fire control work. There is certainly a dollar and cents value in the actual timber saved on public and private land, as well as the potential poten-tial timber preserved from fire on land which Is restocking with forest. And the cutting through of thousands of miles of fire lanes to check the spread of low-running fires, and trails to make the areas more accessible for fighting, are investments of effort of more than immediate immedi-ate value. "Some of the men of the corps have been engaged in rodent control, working on grazing lands rented out by the United States forest service. Rodents destroy the grass coverage, seriously reducing the revenue-producing value of the grazing areas. "Many thousands of the CCC are engaged in what ls called cultural forestry. This is the treatment of forest areas to improve their composition, com-position, quality and rate of growth. We know that such work brings dividends In greater yields. It has been demonstrated that cultural treatment in both pine and hardwood stands will increase the money yield per acre by two and one-half times. This Is another phase of the work which cannot be translated into actual figures fig-ures today. But it is adding in very considerable measure to future values. Not only does Mr. Pack realize the Importance of the CCO work to the future of forestry, but he also calls these camps "the biggest night school in the world" and their work "the biggest educational job ever undertaken in this country." In a message to the heads of forestry schools throughout the country, he said : "There are in round numbers three hundred thousand men In these CCC camps. If they put In only one hour per night for Instruction for six nights a week, they will use one million eight hundred thousand hours per week in study. Counting fifty weeks in the year to allow for 'time out' for various reasons, they will have devoted ninety million hours to 'Study of one kind or another. "Call it a six-hour day and that would mean fully fifteen million working days put In on mental development of one kind or another. Reduce that ninety million hours to calendar days of twenty-four hours each and we have three hundred seventy-five thousand days. This then means we will have approximately one thousand thou-sand and twenty-five man-years devoted to education educa-tion In the CCC camps." by Western Newspaper Union. |