CALAVERAS BIG TREES SAVED 



177 



JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 24 



"Whereas, the bill in the United States 

 Congress to acquire forest lands on the 

 Eastern Appalachian Mountains, in the 

 States of New Hampshire and Maine 

 at the North, and in Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, North CaroHna, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky at 

 the South, has three times passed the 

 United States Senate, was recom- 

 mended in a special message once by 

 President Wm. McKinley and twice by 

 Theodore Roosevelt, has the unquali- 

 fied approval of the President-elect, 

 Wm. H. Taft, and has now been recom- 

 mended to the House of Representa- 

 tives by a vote of ten to four in the 

 Committee on Agriculture, and 



"Whereas, the governor of Massachu- 

 setts, Curtis Guild, Jr., has asked the 

 governor and people of Oregon to lend 

 their support to the passage of this 

 measure at this session of Congress be- 

 fore it adjourns on March 4th, there- 

 fore be it 



"Resolved, by the Senate and House 

 of Representatives of the State of Ore- 

 gon, that the passage of this measure by 

 the Federal Government is approved. 



"Be it further resolved, That the peo- 

 ple of this state and the legislature 

 thereof favor the appropriation of 

 moneys by the Congress of the United 

 States for acquiring title to and refor- 

 esting deforested areas whenever and 

 wherever this policy may be necessary 

 in any of the states of the Union, and 

 the governor is hereby requested to 

 transmit copies of this resolution to 

 members of the Oregon delegation in 

 Congress." 



It is a cause for greater regret that 

 after the measure passed the House, 

 and had already passed the Senate in 

 nearly similar form. Senator Heyburn, 

 of Idaho, and Senator Teller of Colo- 

 rado objected to its going to conference 

 and thus killed it for the present ses- 

 sion. 



CALAVERAS BIG TREES SAVED 



BY SIGNING the bill for the creation of 

 the Calaveras National Forest, Califor- 

 nia, President Roosevelt has saved the 

 most famous grove of trees in the world. The 

 people of California have been working to in- 

 terest the Government in this wonderful grove 

 of Big Trees for more than nine years. The 

 Senate bill passed by the House of Repre- 

 sentatives has just been signed. Every one 

 interested in the great natural wonders re- 

 joices that as a means of saving the Big 

 Trees, the way has been paved for a practical 

 exchange of the timber in the groves for 

 stumpage on other forest land owned by the 

 Government. 



The land to be acquired under the bill 

 includes about 960 acres in what is known 

 as the North Calaveras Grove in Calaveras 

 County, and 3,040 acres in the South Grove 

 in Toulumne County. The North Grove 

 contains ninety-three Big Trees and in the 

 South Grove there are 1,380 of these giant 

 sequoias. Any tree under eighteen feet in 

 circumference, or six feet through, is not 

 considered in the count of large trees. Be- 

 sides the giant sequoias there are hundreds 

 of sugar pines and yellow pines of astonish- 

 ing proportions, ranging to the height of 275 

 feet and often attaining a diameter of eight 



to ten feet. There are also many white firs 

 and incense cedars in the two tracts. A 

 Government study of the land was made by 

 a field party under the direction of Fred G 

 Plummer, United States Forest Service, in 

 1906. 



The Calaveras Big Trees are known the 

 world over. The North Grove contains ten 

 trees each having a diameter of twenty-five 

 feet or over, and more than seventy having 

 a diameter of fifteen to twenty-five feet. 

 Most of the trees have been named, some 

 for famous generals of the United States 

 and others for statesmen and various states 

 of the Union. "The Father of the For- 

 ests," now down, is estimated by Hittel to 

 have had a height of 450 feet and a diameter 

 at the ground of more than forty feet when 

 it was standing. "Massachusetts," contains 

 118,000 board feet of lumber; "Governor 

 Stoneman" contains 108,000 board feet, and 

 the ' ' Mother of the Forest, " burned in the 

 terrible forest fire which licked its way into 

 a part of the grove last summer, contains 

 105,000 board feet. Each of these trees 

 named grows as much lumber as is grown 

 ordinarily on fifteen or twenty acres of tim- , 

 berland. The bark runs from six inches to 

 two feet in thickness. 



