| Show f 99 plant trees and the C C C has of them 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON the date for the celebration of 0 arbor day varies in tho different states more than halt half of them observe it in either april or may Y and everywhere the spirit of th the e day Is the same it Is summed up la in the commandment which all b good americans americana should heed 1111 plant ant trees I 1 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 they will have planted some acres with more than trees fifty years froni from now this will be merchantable timber worth 2 even at present low prices but the timber value of these trees Is 13 pot not their only va value lue much aluch of this gigantic tree planting project has a dual value in that it provides protection of watersheds checks erosion and plays an important part in hood 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 worthwhile worth while job they are arc the members of civilian conservation corps called 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 0 of f the work the far reaching results of that program are indicated in a recent report of director robert fechner covering the first six sit months of the which appeared in a recent issue of the forestry news digest published by the american tree association he produces figures which show that the civilian conservation corps put in days lighting fighting forest tires fires the men put in nan man days hunting bunting for missing persons these items of course did not come under the mapped program one big item in the pro gram of the 1522 camps was planting in which acres were covered in addition man days were devoted to tree nursery work included in the pro program ram affecting six hundred million acres of forest land are removal of inflammable fire hazards from acres construction of miles of truck trails construction of miles of telephone lines construction of miles of fire breaks clearing miles of roadsides as fire prevention move construction of 1700 lookout towers lookout houses and tool houses completion of insect pest control over acres completion of tree and plant disease control operations on acres rodent control campaigns completed on acres work performed under the general title of forest stand improvement included thinning forest areas to improve the stand of valuable trees tree planting and construction of needed buildings 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 included forest stand improvement on acres planting of trees upon acres and the partial completion of tree planting on an additional acres completion of man days of work at nurseries construction of bridges headquarters buildings SOS tool houses bouses 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 acres and the partial completion of control work on an additional acres construction of erosion control dams to regulate stream flow and to check the runoff run off ott from heavy rains work was completed on acres soil erosion and soil saving programs have proved of great importance to all the co ing services in tills this work the forest service with its IG acres of forest land the n national park service the indian service controlling several million acres of indian reservations as well as state and private officials on whose hose land the conservation workers have operated all agree that the work done to save topsoil has been extremely valuable forest service officials refer to this type of work as perhaps as important as soy any done national parks officials refer to the eros lonal control program as one of the most important undertaken by the F A silcox chief of the forest service states the work performed by the youths and veterans has accomplished much needful and valuable work in the national forests lias has served to bring the american public closer to forestry itself and to conservation generally he be 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 CCO boys officials stated that less than 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 acrea acres arno B cammerer Cammer cr director of the office of national parks buildings and reservations joins with silcox in praising the fire prevention activities of the men ile 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 1932 A tremendous amount of conservation and general improvement work also was accomplished in national and state parks improvements required tor for years but impossible 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 M 1 pack train arriving with food supplies at camp F 8 arapaho lo 10 national forest wyoming 7 2 charles lathrop pack president of the american tree association and a pioneer in the plant movement 3 powder crew drilling holes on truck trail construction i cleveland national forest california 4 scattering poisoned grain for ground squirrel eradication cleveland national forest california 5 erosion control dam under construction at camp medicine bow national forest wyoming all pictures courtesy american tree association or are in the process of accomplishment P ment As a result generations to come will derive social benefits from our great recreational areas almost undreamed of when these reservations were established removal of brush and dead timber from national 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 tor 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 Coll fer commissioner of 0 indian affairs states the capital value 0 of the indian lands has been increased 2 tor for every 1 spent the white pine ti blister llster rust one of the most serious menaces to the nations acres of valuable white pine represented one of the major objectives of the forest army the great bulk of the work done was accomplished during the months of july august and september in 1933 as the strength of the forestry army did not reach its peak of around 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 fig ures on this period were not available when mr fechner made his report twenty eight camps containing ewo veterans did flood control work under the supervision of the chief of engineers of the war department of the 1522 camps in the continental united states slates 1250 were under the supervision of the forest service 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 bl 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 ilan commented recently as follows it will take years to show what mobilization of the unemployed has done for the forests and woodlands of the united states charles lathrop pack president of the american tree association estimates that the work of these forest workers wilt will mean the annual saving of hundreds of millions of dollars the program calls tor for tree planting over burned and cleared areas the thinning out of undesirable trees the eradication of insects and diseases that destroy great numbers of trees flood control and protection against soil erosion making trails to help in firefighting fire fighting building lookout towers and emergency fire control landing fields and th the e clearing of grounds tor for camping and other recreational uses this Is a sort of war that science and religion 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 pioneer in the recovery of lost provinces that lie within our national borders if it be ba said that they were drafted the answer Is that they are all volunteers in their willingness 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 im giving value received for what I 1 get rm im earning toy my way rm im not on charity the value received that he gives will not all be immediately available but the dividends will come in due time the benella beneat to the forest worker however Is instant there are more than of these young men la in the more than 1500 camps across america president roosevelt looking into their e i 4 J 13 N A faces at one of them recently said that one had bad but to see them to know that the camps are a success their chief success Is after all not la the trees which these young foresters are savl saving or are planting for the future but in the ne new spirit vigor and hopefulness of the men themselves when the epic story of this period comes to be written it nay may even een be begin in with trees and the man I 1 sing at any rate the trees will have had a proud part in it even more interesting than the foregoing testimony to the importance of this work Is the testimony of mr air pack himself writing under the head bead of auditing the ledger in a recent issue of the review of reviews and worlds 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 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 us as the potential timber preserved from fire on land which Is stocking re with forest and the cutting through of thousands of miles of fire lanes to check the spread of low running tires fires and trails to make the areas more accessible for fighting are investments of effort of more than immediate value some of the men of the corps have hare 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 are engaged in what Is called cultural forestry this is the treatment of forest areas to improve their composition 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 n one half balf times this Is another phase of tb the 0 work which alch cannot be translay translated fed into aci actual figures today but it Is adding in very considerable measure to future values alues not only does mr pack realize the importance of tb the CCO work to the future of foresta forestry Y but he also c calls ails 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 eliout the country he said there are tn in round numbers three hundred thousand men in these 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 or 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 inmans we will have approximately one then sand lind and twenty five fire man years devoted to education in the camps 0 b western newspaper union |
