A special breed of rugged men ranged the forests of
Alberta in the early days. Whenever a ranger came to a
height of land, he would stop to view the surrounding
miles of forest for telltale smoke.

FOREST
SERVICE
CELEBRATION

EDMONTON — With a history traced from
packhorses to airplanes, the Alberta Forest
Service (AFS) is celebrating its 50th anniver-
sary this year.

From its beginning in 1930 the Alberta
Forest Service has probably been recognized
most often through its man in the field, the
forest ranger. However, the forest ranger of
today is considerably different from his front-
ler predecessor of 50 or more years ago.

In early pioneer days, long before the for-
mation of the AFS, a handful of rangers
patrolled the forests living a harsh and iso-
lated existence deep in the bush. They faced
loneliness, grizzly bears, angry poachers,
flooded rivers and raging forest fires. Some
gave their lives in the performance of their
duties.

Until the past couple of decades, the
rangers’ tools included the packsaddles, axe
and climbing spurs. The main means of
transportation was the horse. Communica-
tion depended on how fast a ranger could ride
and, later, on how well he maintained his
phone line. The uniform the rangers wore
consisted usually of chaps, a heavy woollen
mackinaw and utilitarian 10-gallon hat.
Training for the job was based mostly on lore.

The detection and suppression of forest
fires has always been the rangers’ prime
task. During the peak periods of fire hazard
they virtually lived in the saddle. With pack-
ponies trailing behind their saddlehorses, the
rangers patrolled the forests by travelling
long lonely trails to reach the high lookout
points.

When the danger of fire had subsided, the
rangers cruised timber, checked logging
operations, located and built trails and
bridges, constructed cabins, ploughed fire-
guards and cut out the forest reserve
boundaries.

As time passed the rangers’ duties evolved.
With the introduction of new technology, the
methods by which their tasks were performed
changed.

Today’s Alberta forest rangers bear only a

slight resemblance to their predecessors.
Although they continue to enjoy their work in
the bush, most now reside in towns. For trans-
portation their horses have given way to the
airplane, helicopter and all-terrain vehicle.
The rangers wear a distinctive uniform. For
communication, the telephone and subse-
quently the radio have taken the place of the
fast pony ride. Many of the dangers
confronting today’s forest rangers have
remained the same. New challenges,
brought about by the demands of modern
society, have also arisen. To meet the
challenges effectively today’s forest rangers
have been required to take specialized
training at recognized institutes of
education.

The forest ranger occupies a position of
significance in the history of the AFS. He is
the fundamental human component and
most visible member of a dedicated team.
Nevertheless. Alberta’s rangers past and
present, are only part of the total AFS story.

The broader part of the story combines the
ingenuity, bravery and achievements of all
AFS people during the past 50 years.

The Alberta Forest Service began in a
period of difficult times after responsibility
for Alberta’s natural resources was trans-
ferred to the province from the federal govern-
ment on October 1, 1930. Valuable projects,
such as aircraft fire patrol, had to be aban-
doned for lack of funds. Similarly, forest fires
raged unchecked in the northern area of the
province because of limited fire-fighting
resources. It was a seemingly inauspicious
start.

Determination and ingenuity, however,
took the AFS through the Depression years.
The AFS responded to financial restraints
with measures that enabled it to fulfil its
mandate.

Regardless of the cutbacks, special pro-
jects, such as camps for the unemployed and
forestry schools for youths, provided oppor-
tunities when they were difficult to find.

The Second World War brought loss as well
as renewal. Many AFS personnel left Alberta
to serve their country. Some sacrificed their
lives doing it.

The war was also a period of rejuvenation.
Increased logging meant increased timber
dues. With the additional money, the AFS
could expand and improve operations. Look-
out towers, for example, were supplied
with meteorological equipment in 1940 so loo-
kout men could forward vital weather reports
to the headquarters office.

Following the war the demand for forest
products continued to increase. The AFS kept
up its expansion and improvement projects.
Aircraft were once again used for fire patrol
over the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Sur-
veys and inventories of the forests were
undertaken to insure a perpetual supply of
timber.

During the immediate post-war period the
AFS was called upon to meet more new chal-
lenges. A rabies epidemic spread across the
province in 1952 and the AFS set up a tra-
pline system to halt the spread of the poten-
tially fatal disease.

Some of the new challenges were brought
about by the growth of resource industries in
the forests.

As a reflection of the increasingly techni-
cal and complex work being done by the men
in the field, the AF'S began to growin size and
underwent an administrative reorganization
to maintain maximum effectiveness. A
forestry school was established to provide
AFS employees with advanced specialized
education. The first school, set up at Seebe,
was a converted federal government
experimental station. Less than a decade
later the AFS built the new Forest
Technology School at Hinton. The school,
which was soon expanded, offered up-to-date
training and included an outdoor laboratory
in the Cache Percotte Forest.

In other areas of forestry the AFS also
remained in the forefront. The use of aircraft
in fire detection and suppression expanded.
AFS leadership in forestry was demon-
strated, as well, by its construction of the first
forest fire simulator in Canada at the Forest
Technology School. Forest ranger trainees
use the simulator to learn to deal effectively
with real forest fire situations.

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With These Problems

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RESEARCH
GROUP
ESTABLISHED

OTTAWA (CPA) — The Canadian labour
movement, members of the New Democratic
Party and other interested groups are fed up
with policy groups such as the C. D. Howe
Institute and the Fraser Institute who foster
right-wing economic policies.

But instead of just complaining about it,
these groups recently decided to take action
and established an alternative policy cen-
tre, called the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives.

The Centre’s goal is to produce readable
research that provides a countervailing
view to the conventional wisdom and poli-
cies perpetuated by the established research

policy groups.

umber Worker/September, 1980/5