

AMERICAN FORESTRY 



million acres of National Forests, prov- 

 ing at the outset that these forested 

 areas are not huge bodies of uninhabit- 

 able and undeveloped timberlands. 

 While it is true that some of them con- 

 tain large stands of dense and inac- 

 cessible timber, other portions are more 

 thinly wooded, on which the timber is 

 held primarily for the protection of the 

 water supply without which the sur- 

 rounding country would be uninhabit- 

 able. The greatest development is 

 found within these more sparcely 



one of the largest and most important 

 of which is the F'ike. This Forest alone 

 occupies a gross area of 1,323.0(10 acres, 

 on the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 ]\Iountains, and practically in the cen- 

 ter of the state. Primarily the Pike is 

 what is known to foresters as a protec- 

 tion forest. That is, the forest cover 

 is held mainly for the protection and 

 conservation of the water supply fur- 

 nished by countless streams originating 

 within the Forest. How much is de- 

 pendent upon the protection of this for- 



Casc.\de Caxun and Ramon'a Hotel. 

 a summer resort on patented lands within the pike national forest in color.\do. 



wooded regions. ]\Iany of these de- 

 velopments existed long before the for- 

 ests were set aside and, of course, were 

 excluded from the actual Forest bound- 

 aries. When the Forests were created 

 they were made to include only unap- 

 propriated public lands and, at the same 

 time, to exclude as far as practicable, 

 any considerable bodies of land having 

 a greater value for other than forestry 

 purposes. These factors are largely 

 responsible for the irregular shape of 

 their outer boundaries. This same 

 broken up condition also exists within 

 the Forests as will be seen later. 



In Colorado there are seventeen sep- 

 arate and distinct National Forests, 



est cover may be realized when it is 

 known that such municipalities as Den- 

 ver, Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek, 

 Idaho Springs, Golden, Central City, 

 Georgetown, Boulder, and scores of 

 other smaller settlements on and ad- 

 jacent to the Pike are almost wholly 

 dependent, for their domestic water 

 supplies, upon streams arising in or 

 flowing through this Forest. Not only 

 is this true as regards domestic water 

 supplies, but hundreds of thousands of 

 acres of agricultural lands within and 

 without the forest boundaries are irri- 

 gated through the same sources. 



It is impossible to tell in a single ar- 

 ticle all of the developments on the 



