Redesigning Plans of Communication for the National Forests of California

The single-wire grounded telephone line has long been the forester's chief means of communication. For his purpose it has had the advantage of being simple in principle, low in cost, and easy to build and maintain. These features have made this type of line the long-accepted means of reaching into the back country and so of uniting scattered personnel into forest organizations. As the back country has receded and as forest uses and forest organizations have grown, the old grounded trunks have often remained, with the result that they became loaded with new connections and new extensions and became more and more exposed to interference from induction from power sources, so that difficulty in "getting through" was often experienced at critical times.