The Young Forester (Annotated)

A young man named Ken discovers a deep passion for the newfound work of forestry, a controversial new government branch being established in the young United States, especially in the West. Ken is sent to a rural town in deep Arizona to begin the initial studies of the local forests when he stumbles across an illegal logging operation that is wiping out the trees and ruining the land. The local authorities are teeming with corruption, and the Department of Forestry is seen as a joke and a governmental overstep by the people. As Ken attempts to stop the illegal operations, he finds himself deeper and deeper in a savage world of kidnapping, bandits, bears and wild men.