Imagine yourself a part-time tree-naper out in a remote corner of Alaska's Juneau forest region at five A.M., halfway through sectioning up the giant spruce tree you've just felled with your trusty chain saw. Suddenly, you hear footsteps behind you, the ominous splat of a wad of chewing tobacco hitting the snow and a voice saying, "OK, buddy, you'll have to clear out. You know these trees aren't supposed to be cut down." And imagine turning around to confront the forest ranger: She's 5'7", has curly dark hair and a 34-23-35 figure and is accompanied by a Husky whose jaws have no safety switch. Of course, you are armed with a rifle (as is nearly everyone in this territory, where the bears are large enough to play Frisbee with your body), but you don't dare go for it. You're caught and you know it. And--what the hell--you probably don't mind, since the ranger is the prettiest damn thing you've ever seen in the woods at five A.M.
She's Toni Westbrook, and we discovered her during our search for a forthcoming Girls of Alaska pictorial. Toni, 28, was born in California but moved to Alaska two and a half years ago and now considers herself a native Alaskan. Alaska, of course, is horseback, jeep and four-by-four territory, still largely unpopulated and, like many of its citizens, still a bit wild. Toni learned to ride her parents' two horses long before she knew how to drive a car. Accordingly, the first thing she did when she had enough money for a car was to buy a horse. "He cost me $700, plus $150 a month to feed," says Toni, "but he earns his keep. I ride him on patrols through parts of my territory that can't be reached by truck." Her territory is the 1,500,000-acre Juneau Ranger District of Alaska's gigantic Tongass National Forest. And what does Toni's job involve? "The two main things I look for are people who've built makeshift cabins out there without a permit--they're hard to find in an area that huge--and illegal woodcutters."
Toni works out with weights when she isn't patrolling the giant spruce-and-hemlock forest. "You need muscle strength for my job. For instance, after I chased one guy away, I had to roll his log sections, which weighed about 80 pounds apiece, into my truck. It took all afternoon." Toni, who once won a 20-buck bet (with a man, of course) over the number of push-ups she could do, is, however, quite a lady away from the job. She likes "tall, dark, handsome men--but then, what woman doesn't?" with a sense of humor. "A man who can make me laugh does much better with me than a strong, silent macho type." Say, Toni, have you heard the one about Smokey the Bare . . . ?
But seriously. If you're ever lost in the Juneau forest range and pray for an angel to rescue you before your toes freeze off, don't be surprised if that angel is carrying a sack of Copenhagen. And remember: No joking with the ranger on duty.
