Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota

6: Planting Trees and Fighting Fires

83 T he ccc’s impact on the environment was perhaps greatest in Minnesota ’s forests. Most camps in Minnesota were located on federal or state forestlands. ccc work programs focused not just on developing new state forests—thirteen were established in 1933 alone—but also on protecting existing ones. Enrollees planted trees, did forest and lake surveys, conserved marshland and hunting preserves, built administrative and other structures, and worked on fire prevention projects, including fighting forest fires. By the ccc’s end, the program had developed and carried out major forest conservation projects in the Chippewa and Superior national forests and in twenty-one new and existing state forests in all parts of the state.The ccc’s forest conservation work spread to Camp Ripley, Miller Trunk Highway, Itasca Annex, the Anoka Game Refuge, and Nimrod—where state forest camp enrollees completed work projects outside state forest areas.1 ccc work programs in the Chippewa and Superior national forests were supervised by the U.S. Forest Service (usfs) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (usda). Minnesota belonged to the sixth of nine regional divisions , headquartered in Milwaukee. The state administrative headquarters for Superior National Forest were in Duluth; the Chippewa National Forest headquarters were in Cass Lake.Superior National Forest district offices,run by forest rangers, were located atTofte,Two Harbors, Grand Marais, Isabella, 6: PLANTING TREES AND FIGHTING FIRES Aurora, Brittmount, Cook, and Ely. Many of these locations in Minnesota’s Arrowhead region would host ccc camps. The same was true for Chippewa National Forest district office locations at Cass Lake, Walker, Remer, Bena, Cut Foot Sioux, Marcell, Blackduck, and Dora Lake.2 The Minnesota State Forest Service was established in 1911,but state forest (also called state forest preserve) administration was,at best,loosely managed for many years.The organization of the Department of Conservation in 1925 and its 1931 reorganization improved the situation.Grover Conzet,Minnesota ’s director of forestry, was guided by the “economic principle that all lands be put to their highest and most productive long time use for the permanent good of the greatest number of people.” He called for the establishment of nine new state forests—Beltrami Island, Cloquet Valley, Finland, George Washington, Grand Portage, Kabetogama, Savanna, Third River, and White Earth—and suggested they be developed on cutover lands to encourage reforestation of these areas. The Minnesota legislature approved his plan and expanded it,adding Fond du Lac,Foot Hills,Land O’Lakes,and Pine Island.In 1933, Minnesota Laws Chapter 419 created these thirteen new state forests, defined the boundaries for each, and gave the state the authority to acquire privately held lands in their boundaries for forest management and development . Significantly, this legislation also provided Minnesota with the legal grounds to establish ccc camps in state forests.3 Rangers at both national and state forests determined work program needs and developed plans which they sent to state conservation officials for approval.Once authorized,rangers worked with ccc camp personnel to carry 84 the work of the ccc An unidentified enrollee from the Side Lake camp leans on a sign at GeorgeWashington State Forest, one of many state forests in which the ccc worked. out plans, with the camp superintendent overseeing the work. J. C. “Buzz” Ryan, a forest superintendent at the Sullivan Lake state forest camp, described the process: “When you talk of the forest service, you’re talking about the work agency of the cccs. The [enrollees] were turned over every day, and they were in [the] charge of the work agency until they came back at night and were turned back to the army.The [forest] superintendent’s duties ended when they were turned back to the army, but he was responsible for them when they were out in the field.”This same division of labor also existed in ccc camps in the Chippewa and Superior national forests.4 Forest and ccc camp personnel developed work priorities that included increasing the size and number of forests, improving game habitat, conducting lake surveys, and aiding in the development of long-term planning.Work projects were wide ranging.Certainly,enrollees found themselves involved in tree planting,improving forest stands,supporting tree nurseries,and collecting tree seeds. But they also built and improved forest structures such as bridges,buildings,and water supply systems.They strung thousands of miles of telephone lines...