OUR MOUNTAIN MEADOWS 



By Harold C. Bradley 



CONSERVATION of our for- Forests is of importance, and wherever 

 ests has become so much a part che maintenance of good camping fa- 

 of the ideals of the average ciHties is also of importance, as in the 

 thinking citizen of the United Yosemite National Jr'ark, these moun- 

 States today that arguments in favor tain meadows must be preserved. In 

 of the idea need hardly be advanced, the latter case they are of such greai 

 Almost every State that still retains value to the public that their preserva- 

 wooded areas of significant size is tion would seem to be the first thought 

 pledged to preserve and conserve those of the administration. And yet it is. 

 areas to the best of its abilities. Al- perfectly evident to anyone who has 

 most every State where forests can traveled the trails of the Yosemite re~ 

 grow and where land is available for gion that these little meadows are fast 

 the purpose is striving to develop for- vanishing. Exclusive of the three or 

 ests where today none stand. The four great valley meadows, I should 

 withdrawal of forest land by the Gov- estimate the loss of meadow area in the 

 ernment for protection and manage- last ten or fifteen years as fully twenty- 

 ment is an enterprise which commends five per cent. And thus far, no step 

 itself to every intelligent man. The has been taken to check the loss, 

 project as a whole has come to stay; In what follows I shall speak espe- 

 it needs no comment. There are de- cially of the meadows of the Yosemite 

 tails in the practical working out of Park, though the same condition pre- 

 the project which need consideration vails north and south throughout the 

 and discussion. It is with one such National Forests of the Sierras, and to 

 minor detail that this article has a less degree in the high plateau re- 

 to do — the conservation of our moun- gions of the Bitterroot Forest Reserve 

 tain meadows. of Idaho. I am assured that it is also 

 In the mountains with which the to be found in the reserves of the 

 author is most familiar — the Sierra Rocky Mountains proper. Indeed, 

 Nevada range of California and some wherever the mountain range has passed 

 portions of the Rocky Mountains— the through such a history as to have pro- 

 forest-girt meadows with their grass duced these meadows, they must de- 

 and flowers and tinkling brooklets are velop, diminish, and eventually dis- 

 a conspicuous part of the landscape, appear if left to themselves. They rep- 

 They vary in size from little pockets of resent but a passing phase in the cycle, 

 grass just big enough to stake a horse albeit a phase which may be retained 

 on for the night to great verdant val- indefinitely if properly cared for. 

 ley floors like the Tuolumne Meadows In the first place these meadows have 

 of the Yosemite National Park. They had a variety of origins. The great 

 are always lovely, for even in the lower majority of them are lake beds, glacial 

 levels of the mountains they retain their pockets scooped out and silted up, or 

 verdure when all else is parched and valley bottoms dammed by a moraine, 

 brown with drought, and in the season Along a little stream near its sources, a 

 of their prime are fragrant and bright fallen tree may be the cause of hold- 

 as any garden. To the wanderer with ing back the water, retaining its silt 

 his horse they are more than lovely — and eventually forming a little meadow 

 they are a necessity. Not only that, patch. In this way, one finds along 

 but, as will be shown later, they are the upper few miles of brooks that 

 one of the essentials in prolonging and spring in the parklike plateaus, count- 

 equalizing streamflow. Wherever the less little garden spots, moist and rich 

 conservation of water on our National with grass and herbage. Tn the Yo- 

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