Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 4

TREE PLANTING PROJECTS ON THE ST. JOE
By Joe Donally

(Editor's Note: This manuscript was submitted to us by Forest Service retiree Ray L. Hilding, for Lloyd Donally who is now deceased. Hilding writes, "Lloyd probably supervised more planting projects than anyone else in the Northern Region.")

At the age of 29, I decided I wanted to work for the Forest Service, and applied for employment on the St. Joe National Forest. On May 26, 1927, I received notice to report for work on a tree planting project.

Another fellow and I boarded a C.M. St. P. & P. Ry. passenger train at Superior, Montana, destination Herrick, Idaho. On May 28, 1927, we were assigned work, planting trees, mostly white pine, on the Middle Fork of Big Creek. The job location was 15 miles by trail from Herrick. Our salary was $0.53-1/8 per hour less $0.40 per meal. All supplies, camp equipment, and seedlings were brought in by mules. Quarters for the men were in brown-colored army pyramid tents; 6 to 8 men to a tent. Bunks were made by using two 6-inch poles or split cedar placed on the ground about 30 inches apart and filled with straw. Blankets and a tarp were furnished—no pillows or hand towels those days. The work was hard; the food delicious with all you wanted to eat. On June 20 the spring tree planting was finished and I was assigned to district work.

(In the fall of 1926 an epidemic of spinal meningitis had hit the camp on Big Creek. Two men died. Then the men slept on the ground with whatever they could find to put under them - boughs, ferns, grass, etc. It was decided this was not good, health wise, and in 1927 bunks were made as previously described.)

On September 27, 1927, I was assigned to help set up camp on Slate Creek, 15 miles from Avery, for the fall tree planting of white and yellow pine. The planting lasted until October 21 when winter weather set in. My job at this camp was supplying, by mule pack, seedling trees and water to the crews. There were no trails in the planting area and in some places there were so many windfalls and such thick brush the mule would get tangled up and fall down with his legs up in the air. The crews were chiefly men hired out of Spokane. It seemed a crew would be working, another crew coming, and still yet another one leaving, most of the time. The men were offered $.25, a day bonus, plus board and railroad fare, if they would stay until the job was completed. Not many stayed. The disadvantage of planting in the fall is that so much time is lost due to rain. I remember that fall, during the latter part of September and the first part of October, it rained and snowed for ten days straight. Free board was declared in order to hold the crew so they would finish the job.

On May 17, 1928, I arrived at the tree planting camp on the North Fork of the St. Joe River above Avery on Ramsey Creek. We started planting on the 18th and by the 30th we had to give up as the weather was so hot and dry that when a hole was dug the dust would fly up in your face. When this happens it is too dry for little trees to grow. My salary on this job was $4.50 per 8-hour day less $1.20 per day for board.

I wasn't assigned to tree planting again until April 13, 1930, on the North Fork of the St. Joe River, north of Railroad Creek. I was on this job until May 5th when I was called for district work.

On September 27, 1930, I had a 14-man planting crew on Slate Creek. My salary was $110.00 per month and board. The crew was chiefly Forest Service men with a few locally hired men.

This job closed down when winter weather set in on October 17.

On April 27, 1931, we had a 40-man planting crew on the North Fork of the St. Joe River on Rougin Creek. The camp closed May 15.

On September 17, 1931, a 40-man planting crew worked on Slate Creek near Slate Creek Ranger Station. My salary rate was $125.00 per month including board. Crews were comprised of Forest Service employees and locals. Men were arriving as some were leaving. Tree planting is rough, hard work; climbing steep hills over windfalls and through thick brush. Very little level ground is involved. Men were expected to plant 1,200 trees per 8-hour day. I believe I sent more men down the road talking to themselves who were unable to meet this quota than on any Forest Service job I was ever on. Anyone who ever worked under my supervision on tree planting never forgot how I routed them over the hills.

From April 25, 1932, to May 26, 1932, a 48-man planting crew worked on the East Fork of Big Creek. Crews were made up of Forest Service employees and locals. Bunks at this time were made from split dead cedar and a tick filled with straw for a mattress.

The next planting project, from May 5, 1933, to June 4, 1933, utilized a 50-man planting crew near Early Creek on the Middle Fork of Big Creek. Salary rates were going up. On this job I received $155.00 per month gross.

From September 12, 1933, to November 10, 1933, I had a 65-man camp planting trees near Flume Creek on Slate Creek. Here we had four crews requiring one foreman for each. This was during the depression days and the men were paid National Relief Association (NRA) wages.

Men stayed on the job as jobs were scarce.

From April 10, 1934, to May 26, 1934, again I was assigned a 60-man planting camp near Horseshoe Creek on Slate Creek. Here again the men stayed on the job. These men were from all walks of life: railroad men, lumbermen, farmers, etc., going to work wherever they could get a chance. Planting camps were becoming more modern. Folding canvas cots with a pad 4" thick for a mattress were now regular camp equipment. Kapoks with 2 blankets were now issued instead of just blankets.

From April 1, 1935, to June 4, 1935, we had a crew of five foremen and 65 CCC boys planting trees on Avery Creek and North Fork of the St. Joe River about 4 miles above Avery. The average number of trees planted per day dropped considerably when CCC crews were used. The daily average planting was only 400 to 600 trees per man.

Then on October 11, 1935, there was a 75-man Emergency Relief Association (ERA) camp at Collins, Idaho. Our work was hazard reduction and tree planting. Crews were worked planting trees in the fall of 1935 and the spring of 1936. My work ended here the 5th of May 1936.

From May 10, 1936 to June 15, 1936, we had a Forest Service planting camp on the head of Setzer Creek, and the crew of 60 was all CCC boys. To this day I have never seen boys who could stow away food as they did. At mealtime everything was cleaned up. The cook couldn't seem to put out enough food. One morning at breakfast a boy ate 32 hotcakes! Another ate 28. These hotcakes were ordinary size, 6" to 7" in diameter. This is not an exaggeration—I was there. It apparently did not bother them as they immediately went to work. After being there about two weeks these same boys couldn't eat over 6 hotcakes and then they wondered how they had gotten away with 32. Sometimes some of these boys would lay down on the job and would not plant correctly. I would say to them, "You either keep up your end of the work, plant the tree correctly, or go back to the main CCC camp." With such good food for an incentive, they would pitch in and do their part rather than go back to the main CCC camp.

Again from October 15, 1936, to June 13, 1937, it was a 90-man Forest Service ERA camp at Collins. As in 1935 and 1936, these men were from almost every profession and/or vocation. They were not on relief and allowed to work a limited number of hours a month. Many men with very good past experience worked at whatever they were called to do. There were cooks, carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, truck drivers, and many more. Some of these men were used planting trees in the fall of 1935.

In the spring of 1936 all ERA crews and CCC boys from Clarkia were put to work planting trees on ground that had been prepared and burned-over during the winter and early spring. These plantations were at Collins, on Nat Brown Creek, and southwest of Bovill. Ray Fitting won a box of cigars from Elers Koch on a wager that when the first examination of these plantations was made they would show 98 percent survival—and they did:

From May 1, 1940, to June 10, 1940, I was with a 10-man CCC crew. We planted trees on Beaver Creek on the Red Ives District. This crew was the poorest tree planting crew I have ever supervised. For some reason they were not interested in what they were doing and about 60 percent of the trees were not planted correctly.

Next, from October 1,1940, to November 30, 1940, it was threes 10-man crews of CCC boys, planting trees on Marble Creek. And again this same set-up in this area the spring of 1941, April 2 through May 31.

From April 10, 1942, to May 30, 1942: two 12-man CCC crews planting trees on Charlie Creek north of Baldy Mountain. These crews were fairly good tree planters, but of all the CCC boys I worked with, these possessed a real streak of orneriness. They would steal, lie, were destructive, and out for a fight. Later I learned some of them were former jailbirds from back east.

I was with a small Forest Service crew planting trees on Marble Creek near the mouth of Daveggio Creek from April 20, 1944, until May 8, 1944. From May 1, 1948 to May 20, 1948, I had a Forest crew planting trees at St. Joe City near Bond Creek. I was also on a few replanting jobs on Willow Creek, Ramskill Creek, and Bechtel Creek.

Today, Dent, Ames, and Early Creek Plantations, near Bronson Meadows on the Middle Fork of Big Creek, and Mowat Creek Plantation on the East Fork of Big Creek, are recognized as some of the finest white pine stands on the Forest.