Strangers in the Forest — Carol Ryrie Brink; Mary E. Reed

Strangers in the Forest, originally published in 1959, was included in the popular Reader's Digest Condensed Books series. Set in the white pine timberland of the Idaho panhandle in 1908, the story explores the early efforts of the new U.S. Forest Service to instill a sense of conservation - a new concept in Idaho's seemingly inexhaustible forests.
The Forest Service's Bundy Jones heads west to investigate people taking timber homesteads in the north Idaho woods, suspecting that their real intention is to sell out for profit to lumber companies. Jones befriends the homesteaders, but when his connection with the Forest Service is revealed, most of the homesteaders turn against him. The inferno of a north Idaho forest fire once again unites Jones and the timber settlers.