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Show BOB CR00KST0N TAKEN TO TASK FOR HIS STATEMENTS By Verne A. DeForge Editor Cache American 1 Hyrum, Utah, Feb. 10 In note to an article that was printed in your paper on February 7, written by Robert Crookston, we resent a few of Mr. Crookston's remarks. He reports that the boys in the CCD camps spend most of their time leaning on shovels and a reproduction re-production of the China -wall could be made with our - wasted time. If Mr. Crookston thinks for one minute that that is all the boys do out on the job he is badly mistaken and . this camp Blacksmith Fork Canyon F-34 invites in-vites this misinformer to come out on the job any day he sees fit to and see for himself, he or anybody any-body else. How is it that all the roads have been built, trees been planted, dams been built, and all the soil erosion projects put through. How is it that the projects th3 CCC's constructed all stand up? Mr. Crookston do you think that the government would trust the boys in our forests, working like they have been if they didn't believe be-lieve that they were going to do some good? So much work has to be done in a certain amount of time and if it isn't it is just too bad for' the foremans. These foremen have to live. Do you think that they are going to ' let some kid cost them their job? If the reporter would have used his head he could have thought these things out. You especially call down F-34, in Blacksmith Fork canyon, for not building fences for the game in this country. Well I'm sorry Mr. Crookston this camp is run not by the majority of the people in the community it is run by higher authority than that, by men in Ogden or wherever the forestry headquarters "may be. They receive their orders from the 9th corps area headquarters, and thay don't know the troubles cf the people around Logan and it's surrounding territory. Mr. Crookston does'nt it seem that you could arouse the Utah game protective association some other way than attempting to drag the Blacksmith Fork Canyon camp through the mud? We aren't quite as able to banty words as Mr. Crookston, he has made that his way of living, so he is more or less proficient in that line of business, but we can and do handle a shovel to the extent that we earn cur $30 a month, and if Mr. Crookston thinks that is so much hot air we cordially cor-dially invite him out to work with us for a day or as long as he can I take it. . I Just to prove to you what the CCC's have done while leaning on a shovel we here give a few statistics cn the matter, i.e. Built protections against fires, built thousands of telephone lines, thousands of miles of fire breaks; clearing of thousands of miles of roadsides and trails; reduced the fire hazards on more than a million mil-lion acres; had campaigns against rodents, more than 20 million acres have been covered in this line; constructed many thousands of roads; forest stand improvement work, completed over 3 million acres; 300 million trees planted on denuded areas; eradication of poisonous poi-sonous and other harmful plants from nearly 150 thousand acres; construction of reservoirs and watering wa-tering places for stock, and thousands thous-ands of miles of stock fence; 27,-000 27,-000 acres of camp grounds improved; im-proved; - development of several thousand recreational dams; timber tim-ber surveys to the amount of 23 million acres; construction of 30,-"000 30,-"000 foot, horse vehicle, and stock bridges. In addition to all this the CCC's spent hundreds of thousands of man-days in maintenance work on telegraph or telephone lines, fire breaks, and truck trails; also has organized fire suppression crews on the ground have been invaluable in fighting fire. I remain yours truly, Verne A. DeForge |