Very often navigable streams and lakes are used as a part of the transportation system on a National Forest. On the Tahoe National Forest in California launches are operated by the Forest Service on Lake Tahoe to patrol the region around the lake for forest fires. Ferries, boats, and launches belonging to private companies or individuals are used by agreement or if necessary are bought by the Service from the Improvement funds. Speeders, motor cars, and hand cars on railroads or logging roads are often used when an agreement has been made with the company. In this way railroads are made a part of the transportation system of the Forest.
Communication Facilities. The system of communication on the National Forests is scarcely less important than the system of transportation. This system includes telephone lines, signal systems, and mail service. The telephone system, as can be readily seen, is of the utmost importance for the transaction of all kinds of National Forest business. In case a Forest Ranger wishes to speak to his Supervisor about controlling a large fire, it makes a great difference whether he can talk to him over the telephone or whether he must send a messenger on horseback perhaps 60 or 70 miles. In the former case practically no time is lost, in the latter it would take at least two days for the messenger to reach the Forest Ranger, and in the meantime the fire would continue to rage and spread.
In the absence of a telephone system a signal system is used. The one probably used the most in forest fire protection work is the heliograph, by which code messages are sent from one point to another by means of a series of light flashes on a mirror. The light of the sun is used and the flashes are made by the opening and closing of a shutter in front of the mirror. Very often these heliograph stations are located on mountain tops in the midst of extremely inaccessible country. Where there are a number of these stations at least one is connected by telephone to the Forest Supervisor's office. When the Forest officer at the telephone gets a heliograph message about a certain fire he immediately telephones the news directly to the Forest Ranger in whose district the fire is located, or if he does not happen to be in direct communication with the Forest Ranger he notifies the Forest Supervisor, who then notifies the officer concerned. Of course it is all prearranged who should be notified in case a fire is reported to the heliograph man.
Figure 15. A typical view of the National Forest country in Montana. Forest Service trail up Squaw Peak Patrol Station, Cabinet National Forest.
Unfortunately it has been found that this system of communication is not satisfactory even under favorable conditions. This system depends upon direct sunlight; without it is useless. When there is much smoke in the air it is also of uncertain value. The heliograph system has perhaps reached its greatest development upon the California National Forest, but even here experience has shown that it is only a temporary makeshift and the plan is to replace it by a telephone system as soon as possible.
The Forest Supervisor, especially in his summer headquarters, depends directly upon the mail service for communication with the District Forester and the outside world. In many cases the fact that the Forest Supervisor has his headquarters in a small mountain community in the summer has made it possible for that community to receive a daily mail service or mail at least three times a week. When the Forest Supervisor becomes satisfied that mail service is desirable in certain mountain communities he investigates local settlers' needs for mail facilities; or he may coöperate with the people in the nearest village who are petitioning for mail service. Often his influence proves the deciding factor in getting it.
As I have said before, telephone communication is indispensable to fire protection and to quick and efficient methods of conducting National Forest business. Not only do Forest Service lines enter into the National Forest telephone system but all private lines are also made use of. By coöperative agreements with private companies the National Forest lines are used by private companies, in return for which private lines are used by the Forest Service. In this way a complete network of telephone lines is established connecting not only the Forest Supervisor with all his Rangers and his forest fire lookout stations, but also connecting each one of these with local communities and the large towns at a distance. Thus, when a forest fire occurs and the available local help is not sufficient to control the fire the telephone system is put to use to call help from the nearest villages and towns.
Figure 16. Forest Rangers repairing a bridge over a mountain stream. Arapaho National Forest, Colorado