IN THE DEPARTMENTS 



Forest Service, Reclamation Service, Geological Survey 



Washington National Forest 



LAST summer the Geological Survey 

 began the mapping of the Mount 

 Baker quadrangle, in the state of Wash- 

 ington. This area lies in the northwest- 

 ern corner of the Washington National 

 Forest, west of, the main range of the 

 Cascades, north ' of the Skagit River, 

 and south of the British Columbia 

 boundary. It is a region of low valleys, 

 high mountains, heavy timber, and 

 dense brush. Standing as it does al- 

 most directly east of the Straits of 

 Fuca. it catches all the precipitation 

 brought in by the moisture-laden winds 

 of the Pacific, and hence it rains much 

 of the time, although there is a so- 

 called dry season from June to Sep- 

 tember. 



The area is covered with a splendid 

 growth of fir and cedar, some of the 

 fir trees being sixteen feet in diameter, 

 while many of the cedars are twelve 

 feet. This forest would be much im- 

 proved if the ripe, dead, and down tim- 

 ber were removed, thus facilitating the 

 more rapid growth of the young trees. 

 Cutting the timber could easily be ac- 

 complished, as the slopes all lead down 

 to railway transportation, a short dis- 

 tance to tidewater and market. 



The two main valleys, the Skagit and 

 Nooksack, are low, and an immense 

 number of smaller streams flow into 

 them. All carry large volumes of 

 water over steep gradients and offer 

 unexcelled opportunities for the devel- 

 opment of water power, which will un- 

 doubtedly sometime be utilized. Two 

 large cement plants at the village of 

 Baker now get their power from side 

 streams above them, using small vol- 

 ume of water under big head, and a 

 large electric plant on the North Fork 

 of the Nooksack furnishes light and 

 power to the city of Bellingham. 

 406 



Mount Baker, ten thousand eight 

 hundred feet, and Mount Shuksan, 

 nine thousand one hundred feet, are the 

 most prominent peaks in this region. 

 Baker Lake, seven miles east of Mount 

 Baker, and six miles south of Mount 

 Shuksan, is only six hundred sixty feet 

 above the sea. 



The glaciers of Mount Baker are 

 among the largest ice fields in the 

 United States proper, and reach down 

 to three thousand five hundred feet 

 above sea level. 



Travel in this region is mostly on 

 foot, as roads and trails are few and 

 it is impossible to take animals away 

 from them. Under such conditions 

 the making of a topographic survey is 

 most laborious. The worker must 

 fight his way through brush and over 

 fallen logs and wade ice-cold streams 

 while toiling up or down steep slopes 

 with a pack on his back containing short 

 rations and scanty bedding, sleeping 

 nights at any place he happens to be, 

 always tired, and most of the time hun- 

 gry, wet, and ragged. 



Reclamation in the Northwest 



THE great agricultural development 

 now going on in the far North- 

 west is attracting widespread interest 

 throughout the country. On three of 

 the Government irrigation projects 

 approximately one hundred thousand 

 acres of fine farming land is now 

 ready for settlement. These lands lie 

 under the Lower Yellowstone project, 

 Montana-North Dakota, the Huntley 

 project in Southern Montana, and the 

 Shoshone project in Northern Wyo- 

 ming. The projects are divided in 

 forty-acre and eighty-acre farms, which 

 are given away to bona fide settlers, 

 who are required to pay only the actual 



