198 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



The interests of irrigation and navigation have called 

 attention to the necessity of preserving the sources of our 

 water courses by retaining or restoring the forests from 

 which they flow. 



Fortunately, many millions of acres of wooded lands 

 are still held by the national government, and about 

 85,000,000 acres of these lands have been set apart in 

 eighty-three permanent national forest reserves. The 

 primary purpose of these reservations is to conserve the 

 streams and provide means of irrigation and, also, in some 

 degree, to influence the rainfall. They are well scattered 

 in the Far West, and are generally upon land which is of 

 little value for agricultural use. 



They are reserved for the use of man and not reserved 

 from his use. The ripened trees will be cut as they may 

 be needed. There has been much local opposition to many 

 of these reservations, but time and observation have 

 greatly changed the local sentiment. The experimental 

 stage has passed and they can, therefore, be accepted as 

 an established fact, and the question naturally arises as to 

 what extent they may be utilized for the preservation of 

 the remains of our birds, fish, and game, and be used as 

 sources of propagation and supply. At least a portion of 

 these lands should be so used. The writer of this article 

 has for many years endeavored to secure legislation to 

 this end. Wyoming has shown her sympathy with the 

 movement by declaring a permanently closed season in 

 that part of the forest reserves adjacent to the Yellow- 

 stone National Park. 



If some plan of this kind is not adopted, there will soon 

 be very few game birds or game animals anywhere in the 

 United States, except in the narrow limits of private pre- 

 serves. If these national reserves are utilized as prop- 

 agating grounds, there will be an overflow from them, 

 which will inure to the benefit of the general public The 



