Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1919 



Where the Torest maintains tlic fruit-grower's water suprlv. Looking toward Penticton. B.C., 



showing;- tlic Cianfs Head Mountain and licnchos. with tlio famous Summorland orcliards, 



COUPLING THE FOREST TO THE FRUIT FARM 



B^ Ceo. P. Melrose, District Forester, 

 Vernon, British Columbia. 



How British Columbia's Richest Valleys Depend Upon Natural 

 Water Storage of Wooded Mountains, 



The Okanagan Valley is one of the richest agan Valley from which it secures its irrigation 

 and most productive of any of the valleys in 



British Columbia. Its annual export of fruit 

 alone is well in excess of two and a half million 

 dollars, and vegetables, dairy products and live- 

 stock amount to as much more. 



The valley is in the heart of the interior Dry 

 Belt of the Province, and has an almost semi- 

 arid .climate with an average rainfall of about 

 12 inches in the north and 10 inches in the 

 south. The summers are long and dry, whilst 

 the winters are short and have a light snowfall. 

 The bulk of the precipitation occurs during the 

 winter months. 



Distributing Water. 



Agriculture in the valley is dependent entirely 

 upon irrigation and numerous water distributing 

 companies and corporations with hundreds of 

 miles of ditches and flumes handle the water 

 between the mountain streams and the farm, 

 lands. 



As mentioned before, the bulk of the pre- 

 cipitation occurs in the winter in the form of 

 snow. It is heaviest in the mountains and often 

 very light indeed in the valley. This snow lies 

 in the hills all winter and as spring and summer 

 follow it gradually melts, first at low levels and 

 last of all in the high peaks, and finds its way 

 into the streams. 



Luckily, the mountains surrounding the Okan- 



water are covered with a bountiful growth of 

 trees. The forest extends unbroken from one 

 end of the water shed to the other and from 

 near the bottom of the valley to 5,000 feet 

 above it. Upon these forests depend the whole 

 success of the irrigation systms and the fruit 

 and produce growing of the valley. 



A steady supply of water during the growing 

 season of the year is what is required for pro- 

 per irrigation. The forest makes this possible 

 in the following ways: 



First of all they protect the winter snow from 

 quickly melting by shading it from the direct 

 rays of the sun and protecting it from the winds. 

 The snow melts much slower in the woods than 

 in the open, as everyone knows who has been 

 in the woods in the early spring and seen the 

 banks of snow there, while in the open the 

 grass was already green. Thus the run-off from 

 the snow is distributed over a longer period and 

 held till well towards the growing season. 



In the forest there is a continual fall of leaves, 

 twigs and cones that gradually decay and form a 

 spongy, half rotten top-layer to the soil called 

 "humus." When the snow melts this humus 

 soaks up an enormous quantity of the resulting 

 water and holds it like a sponge. After the 

 snow has all disappeared and surface run-off 

 ceased, the "humus" starts giving up its mois- 



