NATURE'S STORAGE RESERVOIRS. 



BEING A PAPER READ AT LOS ANGELES BY 



THE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF THE 



NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



BY GEORGE H. MAXWELL. 



Nearly every one now recognizes the need and importance, all 

 through the arid region of America, of great storage reservoirs to 

 save the waters that now, in the seasons of high water, run away to 

 the ocean, not only wasting the wealth that the use of the water 

 would produce, but oftentimes carrying destruction in their pathway, 

 as the floods sweep down the mountain sides and through the 

 valleys. 



There are not so many who realize the equally important fact 

 that Nature has already made for us great storage reservoirs which 

 must be preserved if we are to maintain the water supplies that we 

 are now using. These natural storage reservoirs are absolutely 

 essential to the very life of many communities in the arid region, and 

 yet, in may places, we are allowing them to be recklessly and ruth- 

 lessly destroyed. 



Much that I would have said to you on this subject has already 

 been better said by others. In his address to-day Mr. Schuyler 

 strongly brought out the close relation between forests and reser- 

 voirs, and showed how essential it is, if we are to utilize the oppor- 

 tunities which Nature has created for building storage reservoirs in 

 the mountain canons, that we should preserve the forests and the 

 foliage that covers the mountain sides, so that the winter storms will 

 not bring down masses of detritus which will rapidly fill up and 

 destroy the storage capacity of the reservoirs. 



He has showed, too, how imperative it is, if we would preserve 

 our sources of water supply, that we should preserve the reservoirs 

 which Nature has provided for holding back the water in the natural 

 sponges, made by the network of undergrowth and roots and decay- 

 ing leaves, and shrubs and brush and trees which in so many places 

 line our hillsides and the precipitious slopes of our mountain canons. 

 And he has showed you how, when this natural sponge is once 

 destroyed by fire or grazing, the waters will rush down in torrential 

 floods, carrying away the scant remaining soil, and making it difficult 

 and often impossible to restore the growth on the slopes that are left 

 barren. 



Mr. Olmstead, the City Engineer of Los Angeles, also portrayed 



