INTEREST IN FOREST PRESERV- 

 ATION. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



Before Sunset Club of Los Angeles, Cal. 



The arguments in favor of forest preservation have the advantage 

 of being so conclusive that they are disputed by few outside the cattle 

 and sheep men who want the range. But this very advantage tends 

 to deaden enthusiam in a great many, for enthusiasm generally has 

 its birth in intense thinking among the contestants in a disputed 

 question. The question of forest preservation is now in a very satis- 

 factory state of advance but we need more constant discussion and 

 increase of enthusiam in it until, at street corners, it is as much a 

 topic of conversation as the latest scandal of the millionaire, aud in 

 social gatherings, rank equal with the consideration of Peter Scarcm 

 or The Struggle for the Last Pigtail. 



In nearly all I have heard on the subject the sheepman is consid- 

 ered the most guilty party in burning off the forests. He is as bad as 

 represented and even worse. But there are others. Two almost as 

 bad are of most eminent respectability. But lack the excuse of the 

 sheepman. He does it to increase the grass that is for profit. The 

 other two do it for pure laziness or stupidity generally both. 



These are the hunters, campers and fishermen, nearly all in pur- 

 suit of pleasure, and the farmers at the base of the mountains. The 

 fisherman is much less of a fire fiend than the others, but only because 

 he camps lower down on the streams and more in the bottom of the 

 canyons along gravelly flats or sandy bars where there is no carpet of 

 dead grass or pine needles to spread his fire. Otherwise, he is qui,te 

 as certain to select the largest log or the biggest living tree to make 

 his fire against, and quite as certain to repeat the performance at the 

 next camping place although he just found his fire so big at the last 

 one that it was impossible to put it out. Especially is this the case 

 with the tenderfoot who is so fast becoming the terror of nature. It 

 seems but a few years when none but the experienced went hunting 

 or fishing. Occasionally a green hand was along with the party but 

 he was generally left at home as a nuisance and seldom dared to start 

 out on his own account. Today hunting and fishing are the proper 

 thing for the business man who wants rest as well as for the men of 

 means or leisure. Railroads and good wagon roads penetrating the 

 mountains in so many directions have made it possible for thousands 

 to go there where but a few years ago it took so much time that they 

 did not attempt it. The first performance of the tenderfoot is always 



