1516 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



•-^>' ■ H' 



productive. Other examples of the damage resulting During the summer it now reaches a point 4 miles 

 from interference with the forest cover before the crea- below the mouth of the canyon and is used early in the 

 tion of the National Forests can be selected almost at fall for irrigation. Apache Creek, which formerly flowed 

 random from 

 the Mountain 

 Forests of the 

 West. In the 

 Sangre de 

 Cristo Range 

 and the Green- 

 horn Range, in 

 what is now tiie 

 ?an Isabel Na- 

 tional Forest, 

 iu s o u t hern 

 Colorado, it is 

 very noticeable 

 that s t r earns 

 whose head- 

 waters have 

 been denuded 

 to a considera- 

 ble extent of 

 their protective 

 cover have 

 badly eroded 

 channels a n d 

 are subject to 

 great extremes 

 in flow, with 

 i r e q uent de- 

 structive floods, 

 while no harm- 

 ful cfl^ects of 

 this sort are 

 noticeable o n 

 streams whose 

 headwaters are 

 well timbered. 

 Wild Cherry 

 Creek, for ex- 

 ample, after 

 being almost 

 c c m J) 1 c t e !y 

 burnt over, 

 was subject to 

 spring floods 

 and to damage 

 from erosion. 

 During July it 

 would dry u]) 

 at a distance 

 of not over 2 

 miles from the 

 mouth of the 

 canyon. As the 



the full length 

 of its course all 

 summer, since 

 the destruction 

 of the timber 

 at its head- 

 w a t ers disap- 

 pears only 2 or 

 ^ miles from its 

 liead ; and its 

 only value for 

 irrigation ])ur- 

 |)Oses after the 

 middle of June 

 lies in its flood 

 waters, which 

 are very un- 

 certain. Hard- 

 scrabble and 

 -Medano Creeks 

 have suffered 

 similar results, 

 and the list 

 miijlit be ex- 

 ex t e n ded al- 

 most indefinite- 

 ly- 



On the North 

 Fork of the 

 Gunnison 

 River, in west- 

 ern Colorado, 

 m u c h fl o o d 

 damage has oc- 

 curred as a re- 

 sult of the ex- 

 t(_-nsive ti r e s 

 which burned 

 over its upper 

 watersheds in 

 the late seven- 

 ties and early 

 eighties. Pre- 

 vious to that 

 lime the creek 

 channels were 

 n a r r o w and 

 rocky, beavers 



WHAT lUU KAPID RUN-Oi-F CAN DO 



Upper. 



were abundant, 

 and the bottom 

 lands showed 

 little e r osion. 

 In 1884 a 



watershed has become reforested these conditions have heavy snowfall was followed by a flood which is esti- 

 changed gradually until today the stream is not subject mated to have ruined at least 2,000 acres of good ranch 

 to floods and erosion and is more regular in its flow. land. Since then destructive floods have occurred every 



-Boulders for soil. This view of the Santa Ana River in southern California shows how torrential 



run-olT may wash away the soil and leave the land covered with snags, gravel, bowlders, and 



other infertile debris. 

 -Sand for alfalfa. The sand waste in the foreground is typical of hundreds of acres of formerly 



good alfalfa land along the San Diego River in southern California which were seriously 



damaged by the flood of January, 1916. 



