560 Presidential Addresses 



preserves for the wild forest creatures. All of the re- 

 serves should be better protected from fires. Many 

 of them need special protection because of the great 

 injury done by live stock, above all by sheep. The 

 increase in deer, elk, and other animals in the Yel- 

 lowstone Park shows what may be expected when 

 other mountain forests are properly protected by law 

 and properly guarded. Some of these areas have 

 been so denuded of surface vegetation by overgraz- 

 ing that the ground breeding birds, including grouse 

 and quail, and many mammals, including deer, have 

 been exterminated or driven away. At the same 

 time the water-storing capacity of the surface has 

 been decreased or destroyed, thus promoting floods 

 in times of rain and diminishing the flow of streams 

 between rains. 



In cases where natural conditions have been re- 

 stored for a few years, vegetation has again car- 

 peted the ground, birds and deer are coming back, 

 and hundreds of persons, especially from the imme- 

 diate neighborhood, come each summer to enjoy 

 the privilege of camping. Some at least of the forest 

 reserves should afford perpetual protection to the 

 native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge to 

 our rapidly diminishing wild animals of the larger 

 kinds, and free camping grounds for the ever-in- 

 creasing numbers of men and women who have 

 learned to find rest, health, and recreation in the 

 splendid forests and flower-clad meadows of our 

 mountains. The forest reserves should be set apart 

 forever for the use and benefit of our people as a 



