LIBRA 



NEW Y 



30TAN1.. 



qa; 



Vol. XVI 



APRIL, 1910 



No. 4 



CHECKING FLOODS IN THE FRENCH ALPS 



By HARRINGTON MOORE, M.F., United States Forest Service 



O^ 



DOUBTLESS we all have seen ac- 

 counts of terrible losses and 

 suffering- caused by floods in 

 France, not only in Paris but through- 

 out the whole country. We must also 

 have seen in all the papers and periodi- 

 cals, particularly in Collier's, that the 

 conservation policy so splendidly started 

 by Gifford Pinchot and so ably backed 

 by Theodore Roosevelt, which from its 

 very beginning has from time to time 

 been attacked by all the large interests, 

 is now undergoing the fiercest test to 

 which it has ever been subjected. 



The connection between the two oc- 

 currences may not at once be apparent 

 to the man who reads as he runs. But 

 to those who have given the matter 

 more than a passing thought there is a 

 vitally important lesson to be learned. 



The lesson is that if France had had 

 a conservation policy a good many 

 vears ago, the damage caused by the 

 recent floods would have been greatly 

 lessened. It cannot be asserted that the 

 flood which inundated Paris was due 

 entirelv or even chiefly to deforestation, 

 since in the case of Paris so many 

 different factors, such as the situation 

 of the city immediately in the river bed 

 and the particularly porous nature of 

 the rock and soil comprising that part 

 of France drained by the Seine, must 

 be taken into consideration. But at 

 the same time it cannot be denied that 



equally destructive floods did occur 

 and often have occurred before in less 

 conspicuous parts of the country, and 

 that these floods were largely if not en- 

 tirely, due to the effects of deforesta- 

 tion. 



It is therefore no exaggeration to 

 say that if the people of the LTnited 

 States allow their present attempts to 

 establish a conservation policy to be 

 ])locked by the big interests, large areas 

 of our country will be subjected to the 

 same dangers. 



Hence a short account of the damage 

 caused by these floods in the French 

 Alps and of the costly work which is 

 being done to prevent the future occur- 

 rence of this damage may be of some 

 assistance in forming an opinion as to 

 the importance of the conservation 

 movement in the LTnited States. 



II. HISTORICAL 



Before the French Revolution the 

 mountains of France (chiefly the Alps 

 in southeastern France) were well 

 covered with forests which belonged to 

 the crown and to the nobility. When 

 the king and his courtiers were swept 

 away by the rising tide of revolution, 

 their possessions were swept with them 

 into the all devouring maw of the com- 

 munes and private individuals. The 

 result was the wholesale destruction of 

 the forests, as might have been ex- 



199 



>- 

 <! 



