OPPOSE STATE CONTROL OF FORESTS 



ffi EMBERS of the Colorado State 

 Forestry Association, of which 

 W. G. M. Stone is the president, 

 are vigorously combating a move to turn 

 over to the State the public domain and 

 all its natural resources. Such a change 

 would embrace the forest reserves and 

 if these passed into private ownership, 

 as some desire, it would unquestionably 

 lead to conditions involving the ex- 

 termination of the forests which con- 

 serve the snows and moisture at the 

 headwaters of the state's mountain 

 streams. 



The Association now declares that 

 whatever changes in the Land laws may 

 be necessary in other directions, that it 

 most earnestly protests against the 

 turning over to the state of that por- 

 tion of the public domain which in- 

 cludes the forest reserves. 



The Association says: ''To turn the 

 forests over to the state; for the state 

 to open them up to indiscriminate and 

 easy entry; letting in sawmills, tie cut- 

 ters, and others in countless numbers, 

 to get the forest products on the mar- 

 ket ; the building of thousands of cabins 

 necessary to shelter such an army of 

 mountaineers, and the providing of 

 food and clothing for so great a num- 

 ber would, without question, add greatly 



to the activities of the state — for a time, 



but— 



"When the mountains are stripped 



and there is no more timber to put on 



the market: 



"When the irrigated lands on the 



plains begin to feel the effects upon the 



water supply by reason of the deforesta- 

 tion of the mountains : 



"When it is found that no further 



irrigation development by the storage 



of water is possible : 



"When all further growth of our 



agriculture in this direction is at an 



end: 



"When the so called mountain homes 

 are deserted and the lands are sold for 

 taxes with no buyers except the respec- 

 tive counties, what then ? A blight. A 

 set back from which there could be no 

 recovery. A set back by the same cause 

 that brought desolation and ruin upon 

 Northern Africa, Syria and Babylonia, 

 once cradles of learning and homes of 

 the world's best progress." 



The resolutions passed by the Asso- 

 ciation heartily endorse the policy be- 

 ing pursued by the Forest Service, 

 whicii is opposed to turning over the 

 forest reserves to the state, and pledges 

 it support in its undertaking to protect 

 the forests and improve their greatly 

 dilapidated condition. 



APPROVE A NATIONAL FOREST 



gT a recent meeting of the District 

 of Columbia Branch of the 

 Woman's National Rivers and 

 Harbors Congress a subject under dis- 

 cussion was the advisibility of a na- 

 tional forest as a background and 

 worthy setting for the Capital, with its 

 classic buildings rising in stately splen- 

 dor. The tract of land in view, which 

 would be included in the proposed na- 

 tional forest, begins at Bladenburg and 

 extends northeast twenty miles, until it 



34a 



crosses the Patuxent River. The 

 speaker said : "In all this tract includes 

 about 41,000 acres. Separated from it 

 by a narrow strip between Washington 

 and Laurel, there is another body of 

 16,000 acres. Beyond the Patuxent it 

 swings eastward, touching the Severn 

 and South rivers and reaching the out- 

 skirts of Annapolis, the seat of the 

 United States Naval Academy, and 

 thereby adds another area of 43,000 

 acres. Another forest district of vital 



