270 JOURNAt OF FORESTRY 



The interpretation of, these figures admittedly involves certain ques- 

 tions of definition, and also certain predictions, based on purely personal 

 observations and judgment, as to how far "started" and "partly ruined" 

 valleys will go if no new control measures are used. It is, however, a- 

 matter of common knowledge that most of the erosion in the valleys 

 listed has taken place since the range industry was started, namely. 

 during the last forty years. If forty years of grazing has partly ruined 

 28 per cent of our valleys, and has started erosion in another 3G per 

 cent, then I consider the figures ample basis for predicting that over 

 half of the creek valleys within the Southwestern Forests will be 

 largely ruined within another twenty years, unless artificial control 

 measures are developed and put into effect. 



A brief description of a ruined valley may be of interest to those not 

 personally acquainted with Southwestern conditions. The Blue River 

 drains an area about twenty miles wide by forty miles long in the 

 Apache Forest, Arizona. The head waters rise in the Alpine. Douglas 

 fir, and yellow pine types of the White Mountains and the Blue Range. 

 These timber types have never been very severely overgrazed, even 

 before the creation of the Forest. The lower tributaries are in the 

 oak brush and woodland type, and were heavily grazed before the 

 Forest was created. The entire watershed has been normally stocked 

 since. All the old settlers agree that the bottoms of Blue River were, 

 at the time of settlement in about 1885, stirrup-high in gramma grass 

 and covered with groves of mixed hardwoods and pine. The banks 

 were lined with willows and the river abounded with trout. The valley 

 soon became one succession of cattle ranches. Orchards and alfalfa 

 fields were started at each ranch. The surrounding country was so 

 rough that much concentration of stock naturally occurred, the valley 

 and its tributary valleys were eaten out, and about 1900, fifteen years 

 after settlement, floods began to cut an ever widening channel. In 

 1906, eight years after the Forest was established, erosion was in full 

 swing. Today Blue River valley is mostly boulders, with a few shelves 

 or original bottom land left high and dry between rocky points. Farm- 

 ing is practically at an end because the land is gone, and because it is 

 nearly impossible to maintain headgates to lead irrigation water upon 

 such land as is left. The population about 1900, as estimated by an 

 old cowman, was 300 people on 45 ranches. The present popula- 

 tion is about 95 people on 21 ranches. In other words, erosion has 



