Show FOREST RANGER WRITES END TO OFFICIAL DIARY the retirement of benjamin ranger of the dixie national forest was announced last week by albert alberston forest supervisor on may 31 ranger will 0 officially f fici ally close thirty years of service ic riding the ranges of the national forests for uncle sam he entered the service may 4 1914 on the kia bab national forest in arizona the forest reserves as the national forests were known then were yet young ranger hanger recalls the time when cow outfits on the held grazing permits up to as many as head of cattle each range management lacked the faaili facilities t e s of improved watering developments for or livestock and the miles of fences that exist today on forest ranges for the control of grazing trespass by large numbers of livestock was a difficult condition to control ranger rode the ranges never reaching home for six m months months at a time he blazed the trail for location by the engineers of the early grand canyon highway through the forest and conducted the first big game counts made by the forest service in the states of arizona and utah on april 1 1917 he was transferred to the powell national forest and was stationed at ai sweetwater and later at widstoe where he personally constructed the buildings and improvements of the supervisors headquarters then local ed there on september 1 1920 he was reassigned to the and had year long headquarters at the old ryan ranger station deer were rapidly increasing and he devoted much of his work to protect the range against excessive grazing by the kia bab deer herd which within a few years became nationally renounced when the deer numbered upward of head he trapped hundreds 1 of deer which were shipped to eastern zoos and transplanted to other are asHe autopsied deer to determine their eating habits to find information inform for range faana gement on may 1 1927 he was assigned to the dixie national forest and was stationed first at leeds and later at st george and pine valley where he had charge of the pine valley ranger district on february 1 1934 he was given charge of the enterprise ranger district t and resided with his family at enterprise since assignment to the dixie forest he planned and supervised the building of the pine valley and enter prise ranger stations his work has included supervision of men during eleven seasons with crews engaged in the control of bark bee tle tie in commerce commercial ial timber stands dur in ing g special assignments to the wasatch wyoming ashley and uinta forests he has constructed 82 miles of telephone lines and supervised the building of miles of forest roads 55 miles of trails miles of range fences 19 corrals and range water developments used by permitted perm I 1 livestock ranger was born bom at luna valley new mexico february 22 1884 and moved with his parents to kanab when he was five years of age he spent his early life as a cowboy on ranches in southern utah arizona and nevada he was married august 4 1903 to elizabeth merrell of tropic and his five sons and daughters burns and gordon of orem mrs eliza sargent of provo mrs elfonda waters waiters of lark and mrs lorna shumway Shurn way of kariam kanab he has recently i purchased a small farm at kanab where he plans to make his future home among his many lifelong friends and users of the national forests in this part of the region where he has spent nearly his entire career as a forest tanger ranger |