Jesse James, ranger - professional forester Jesse James III - Earthkeepers

American Forests, March-April, 1994 by Pamela Selbert

Planting trees to repair the land became a "mission" for Jesse James III, district ranger for St. Francis National Forest near Marianna, Arizona, nearly 20 years ago. He considers it to be one of his most important missions, but it isn't his only one--he has many, and all benefit either the environment or individuals in his community. Whether overseeing projects to plant the trees or planting them himself, James has played a role in getting literally millions of tree--mostly oaks and pines--into the ground.

For his dedicated work on St. Francis and involvement in many groups and organizations, James was recently named 1993 Lee County Citizen of the Year. According to Reverend Robert Taylor who presented James with the award last fall at a banquet, the recipient is "well-rounded and versatile, dependable, willing to tackle any worthy project and see it through, and . . . he says TREES when it's time to take a picture."

James, 43, answers the inevitable questions about his famous name by saying simply, "it belonged to my father and grandfather before me," but admits he broke the tradition with his own son Reginald.

As a youngster in his native Fayette, Mississippi, James helped supplement the family income by cutting trees, and as a high school student he cut trees for pulpwood to earn money for college. With a degree in agriculture education, James taught one semester, but decided the Forest Service was where he belonged.

"I felt like I'd been cutting trees all my life--now I needed to learn how to plant them," he says. "I interviewed with the Forest Service and was given a 180-day 'appointment' planting trees with Grenada (MS) State and Private Forestry."

James eventually returned to college to get a bachelor's degree in forestry. "My professors couldn't understand why I wasn't studying social science--I was the only member of my ethnic group to be in the forestry program," he says. "But my dream was to become a professional forester."

He served in various posts before transferring in 1987 to the 22,000-acre St. Francis National Forest in eastern Arkansas. Here, he took over the job of district ranger--"it's sort of like being the district's gofer," he says, with characteristic understatement. "Whatever needs to be done that others don't have time for, I do it." As district ranger James directs programs that involve forest soil and water uses, wildlife, recreation, and its use as rangeland for area ranchers; he deals with oil and gas leases, monitors the extraction of minerals and quarry rock, and attends to "special uses" which, for instance, permit a Methodist church camp and 52 privately owned summer homes to occupy Forest Service land.

"Now some folks might call it 'work,' but my work is play," says James, grinning widely. "If I thought of it as work I might get tired." (Rev. Taylor adds that when James' wife suggests that he rest, James replies, "There is no rest for the wicked, and the righteous can't afford to get tired!")

Since he came to St. Francis, the soft-spoken James has both initiated programs and expanded existing ones that involve the community in work on the forest.

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) has grown under his direction from six to 10 local seniors who spend about three days each week in St. Francis putting up signs, cleaning up recreation areas, cutting grass, and fertilizing wildlife openings, among other chores.

James recruits his SCSEP workers from clinics and several agencies for aging, then trains them himself. One of the women--an assembly line worker for some 40 years--had never completed high school, he says. "Partly on Forest Service time, partly on my own time" he helped her obtain a G.E.D. by teaching her fractions and typing.

Another Forest Service program--the Youth Conservation Corps, which employs students ages 16 through 18 for eight weeks in the summer--is optional to each national forest, but had never been tried on the St. Francis before James arrived.

"It's a great opportunity for kids," says James who started the program in 1987, and recruits his youthful workers at the local high school. "Now I can only let each of them work one year--you wouldn't believe how many kids want to be out here."

James was also instrumental in involving the Forest Service in a Youth Enterprises in Agriculture, which allows him to offer jobs to two college-bound seniors each year, and in a Youth Apprenticeship Program. The program offers two students after-school and summer jobs to perform such tasks as taking water samples from forest lakes and wells.

James also "supplements existing trees by "planting trees that are natural and genetically suited to the land." One way he insures this is by collecting acorns from the forest's numerous oaks--northern, red, white, nutall, and cherry bark--and turning them over to local nurseries. Later, when the acorns have become seedlings, they're planted in the forest by youth groups or senior volunteers from area churches. Since 1989, James has overseen the planting of more than 18,000 oak trees.