How the Forest Rangers got their start

How the Forest Rangers got their start

04 July 2017

published by https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org

USA – It’s been a fairly wet spring and summer this year, but when it gets dry for weeks at a time, the New York State Forest Rangers keep a close watch on forest fire danger in the Adirondacks.

In the early 1900s, fires ravaged thousands of acres of forest land in the Adirondack Park, particularly along railroad corridors. It caused alarm in Albany. The old system, created when the Forest Preserve was formed in 1885, wasn’t working.

A new approach was needed, so the New York Legislature enacted new laws in 1909 to fight fires in the Adirondacks and Catskills. It was a game-changing moment, one that would lead to the establishment of the Forest Ranger Division in 1912 and the construction of more than 100 fire towers.

It’s been a fairly wet spring and summer this year, but when it gets dry for weeks at a time, the New York State Forest Rangers keep a close watch on forest fire danger in the Adirondacks. In the early 1900s, fires ravaged thousands of acres of forest land in the Adirondack Park, particularly along railroad corridors. It caused alarm in Albany. The old system, created when the Forest Preserve was formed in 1885, wasn’t working. A new approach was needed, so the New York Legislature enacted new laws in 1909 to fight fires in the Adirondacks and Catskills. It was a game-changing moment, one that would lead to the establishment of the Forest Ranger Division in 1912 and the construction of more than 100 fire towers.

Andy Flynn recently visited the state Department of Environmental Conservation offices in Ray Brook, home of Region 5. He spoke with Forest Ranger Scott van Laer, historian for the state’s Forest Ranger Division, about a ledger that details some of the region’s forest fires shortly after the 1909 laws were enacted.

Interview highlights

Scott van Laer: This is a ledger that documented all the wild land or forest fires that occurred in what was then called District 3, which included the Adirondack counties of, parts of, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Herkimer and Lewis. What’s really interesting about the ledger is it’s the oldest documentation that we still have from this time period. It begins in 1910, and it goes up into the 1920s. This coincided with some legislation that changed in 1909, and this began what essentially what we know today as the forest ranger division.

This is a custom ledger. The headings are very specific. It was made and printed specifically for what would three years later become known as the forest rangers.

Interview highlights Scott van Laer: This is a ledger that documented all the wild land or forest fires that occurred in what was then called District 3, which included the Adirondack counties of, parts of, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Herkimer and Lewis. What’s really interesting about the ledger is it’s the oldest documentation that we still have from this time period. It begins in 1910, and it goes up into the 1920s. This coincided with some legislation that changed in 1909, and this began what essentially what we know today as the forest ranger division. This is a custom ledger. The headings are very specific. It was made and printed specifically for what would three years later become known as the forest rangers.

Inside the Ledger

This encompassed a lot of what we know as DEC Region 6 today. The far left part of the ledger shows the location, county and town, a date, who reported it, and then it gets into the cost of it… Then it gets into the cause. For a lot of that column, it’s blank, but you do see a lot of causes that were not as common today, like “railroad.” …you don’t see a lot of natural fires, but there are some. You see some lightning that were a cause. What you see is they attach a cause a lot of times to the recreational activity, which I assume they were probably from campfires. They would delineate fishermen, camper, hiker, berry picker… lumberjack smoking.

A new system is born

1908 was a keystone year, which caused this legislation primarily, I believe, because of the fire at Long Lake West. Thirty-eight freight cars burned down, a railroad station and a large hotel. Most of that hamlet had to be evacuated by rail car.

The system that had been previously in place was from 1885. It coincided with the act of that time. What they had in place then was called fire wardens, and they essentially designated people in towns and hamlets that they thought would function well to supervise putting out fires. But they weren’t paid. They were volunteers and were only paid when they were fighting a fire.
After 1908, it became clear after hundreds of thousands of acres burned and the entire hamlet of Long lake West burned that it didn’t work. So the act of 1909 not only created what we know as the forest rangers, but it created the funds for the prevention system.

Inside the Ledger This encompassed a lot of what we know as DEC Region 6 today. The far left part of the ledger shows the location, county and town, a date, who reported it, and then it gets into the cost of it… Then it gets into the cause. For a lot of that column, it’s blank, but you do see a lot of causes that were not as common today, like “railroad.” …you don’t see a lot of natural fires, but there are some. You see some lightning that were a cause. What you see is they attach a cause a lot of times to the recreational activity, which I assume they were probably from campfires. They would delineate fishermen, camper, hiker, berry picker… lumberjack smoking. A new system is born 1908 was a keystone year, which caused this legislation primarily, I believe, because of the fire at Long Lake West. Thirty-eight freight cars burned down, a railroad station and a large hotel. Most of that hamlet had to be evacuated by rail car. The system that had been previously in place was from 1885. It coincided with the act of that time. What they had in place then was called fire wardens, and they essentially designated people in towns and hamlets that they thought would function well to supervise putting out fires. But they weren’t paid. They were volunteers and were only paid when they were fighting a fire. After 1908, it became clear after hundreds of thousands of acres burned and the entire hamlet of Long lake West burned that it didn’t work. So the act of 1909 not only created what we know as the forest rangers, but it created the funds for the prevention system.

[By the 1960s] we got so good at our job, you actually saw the fire towers be abandoned and the fire tower observer’s job eventually disappearing.

This is when all those fire towers started to go up, and you saw for the next several decades this come into place. And it was highly successful. If you go through this documentation, you can see how the number of fires and acreage goes down over time. [By the 1960s] we got so good at our job, you actually saw the fire towers be abandoned and the fire tower observer’s job eventually disappearing.

It’s been a fairly wet spring and summer this year, but when it gets dry for weeks at a time, the New York State Forest Rangers keep a close watch on forest fire danger in the Adirondacks.

The forest fire, which started on the night of June 24 and still smoldering in Spain’s southwestern region of Huelva, burned a total of 8,486 hectares, the Andalusian Regional Government said on Wednesday. Environmental spokesman for Andalusia, Jose Fiscal, confirmed the damage on his Twitter account. Over 2,000 people had had to be evacuated from hotels and campsites on the perimeter of the fire, he said. He added that the perimeter established around the fire was actually 10,900 hectares, but within that perimeter, 2,414 hectares of woodland were still intact. The fire damaged two protected areas: 6,761 hectares of Donana National Park, which has UNESCO protected status and is home to around 400 different species such as the threatened Iberian Lynx and Iberian Eagle, and 17 hectares of Laguna de Palos y Madres Nature Park. The Andalusian government believed that had it not been for the work of fire fighters, who at the height of the blaze numbered around 500, the damage would have been far worse for the 43,225 hectares of woods and scrubland. According to the regional government, temperatures were around 40 degrees Celsius when the fire began, with a wind-speed of between 30 and 40 km per hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 90 km/h at night, which helped propagate the flames and made it impossible to use aircraft or helicopters to fight the fire. A total of 50 firemen remain in the zone to continue the work of damping down and to ensure there are no flare ups, while investigations continue into the cause of the blaze. Authorities have not ruled out a human cause.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/society/view/spanish-forest-fire-burns-over-8400-hectares-in-and-around-national-park-102857-2017/
If you use BelTAs materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.Tropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-peatlands-dwindling-losses.html#jCpTropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

4. July 2017/by GFMCadmin