68 FOREST LANDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



" The foliage on this class of trees being as heavy in winter as in summer, 

 the branches catch an immense amount of the falling snow and hold it up in 

 mid-air for both sun and air to work upon; and only those who have had 

 experience of the absorbing power of the dry mountain air can form any idea 

 of the loss from that source." Moreover "the trees absorb from the soil quite 

 as much water as would be evaporated by the action of the sun in the absence 

 of the shade." 



The writer states that " the strongest force at work to save our rivers is the 

 drifting winds which heap up the snow in great banks; and in this the trees 

 are a constant obstacle." He declares that "close observers, after long yoars 

 of study, have been led to believe that if there is any difference in the flow of 

 streams and the size of springs before and after the trees are cut from above 

 them, the balance is in the favor of the open country." a 



In the current literature upon this subject one invariably encounters the 

 same fallacious assumption, that because the forests delay melting their action 

 is therefore beneficial. The fact is entirely overlooked that delay means con- 

 centration and greater intensity of run-off, while the open country prolongs the 

 melting and gives a more even distribution. If the true action of forests in 

 this respect, however, is rarely recognized by public writers, it is recognized, 

 though perhaps unconsciously, by those who are benefited by it. The monthly 

 reports of the Weather Bureau in the Rocky Mountain region are instructive 

 reading in this connection. The following are a few extracts from those sent 

 in to the central office of the western Montana district at. Helena : 



"Where there is no timber to break the force of the winds solid drifts of 

 considerable depth have collected." * " * "The snowfall has been very 

 light and the drifts are not large or solid enough to furnish an adequate flow 

 of water in the streams." * * * " In some sections the winter's snowfall 

 has been the lightest for many years, and as there is little likelihood that the 

 later snows will form solid drifts, it is practically certain that the flow of 

 water in most streams will be inadequate for irrigation and mining purposes." 



These extracts, which could be multiplied indefinitely, show how well the 

 practical ranchman understands the value of snowdrifts. It has always been 

 a mystery to the author that writers will persist in statements like the' follow- 

 ing, which appears in one of the ablest addresses at the recent conservation 

 conference in Washington: 



"The possibility of irrigation depends largely on the preservation of the 

 forest cover of the mountains, which catches and holds the melting snows, and 

 thus forms the great storage reservoirs of nature." 



The forests destroy the reservoirs and the flow would be more uniform, pro- 

 longed, and plentiful if they were not there. 



It will doubtless be urged that while the foregoing conclusions may hold for 

 an elevated and densely wooded region, they will not hold for a lower altitude, 

 warmer climate, and different kind of forest. In reply it may be said that in 

 proportion as the conditions described prevail, they apply everywhere. In 

 deciduous forests where the foliage is absent during seasons of snowfall and 

 melting, the winds have greater play in winter and the sunlight in spring, and 

 there is, of course, less difference between the forests and the open country: but 

 while the difference is less it is not obliterated altogether, and in hilly regions, 

 like the Adirondacks and the White Mountains, it exists in full force.' The 

 author Is very familiar with the region of western New York having been 

 reared on a farm nearly on the divide between the waters of the Ohio and Lake 

 Erie a beautifully wooded country, deciduous growths prevailing, and one of 

 the snowiest regions in the United States. While there is less drifting in the 

 open, and more in the woods than in high mountains, still it !s strictly true 

 that the open-country drifts outlast the forest snows just as the latter outlast 

 the thin snows in the open. 



The author recalls only a single other writer who has set forth this matter 

 In accordance with the facts, and that was an anonymous correspondent in a 

 recent issue of the Pacific Sportsman. His view of the case is summarized in 

 rather terse language as follows: "Trees in the mountains make floods in the 

 spring." "Snow in the timber melts too fast. The timber keeps it from drift- 

 Ing." "The agency which maintains the river Is the snow in the huge drifts." 

 "That (the drift) is your reservoir that feeds the living streams of summer 

 time." " The timber has nothing to do with the water supply, but Is a result 

 of the water supply." 



