Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1919 



263 



Finally, it was the deliberate thought and 

 conclusion of the conference that the timber sit- 

 uation of the country is so serious as to make 

 an immediate necessity the inauguration of a 

 broad and far-reaching timber policy which 

 shall bring under some measure of public con- 

 trol all forests of the country. 



The sense of the meeting was expressed in 

 the following resolution which was unanimously 

 adopted : 



Resolved, that forestry questions are national 

 questions, as well as state and local questions, 

 and it is the sense of the conference that the 

 National Government should assume leadership 

 in these matters and aid and co-operate with 

 the several states in furnishing adequate pro- 

 tection from forest fires, in perpetuating ex- 

 isting forests, and in reforesting devastated 

 forest districts or regions, upon such conditions 

 as may seem just and equitable. 



OUR WATER POWERS AND REFORESTATION 



The building of storage reservoirs for the 

 conservation of water supply must be accom- 

 panied by wholesale reforestation, urges the 

 New York College of Forestry in a special 

 bulletin. 



"The present interest in the development of 

 water power in New York is emphasizing the 

 problem of bringing about regular flow in 

 streams for both power and domestic use. There 

 is no question of course but that streams must 

 be kept to a certain level throughout the year 

 to be of value in the production of power. 

 Where a stream fills its banks for a few months 

 of the year and then dwindles to nothing, neces- 

 sitating the use of steam power for the re- 

 mainder of the year, these streams can be said 

 to be of really little value to the state. There 

 is no question but that the building of storage 

 reservoirs at strategic points on water courses 

 will assist in holding water back and allowing 

 the streams to fill to a higher level through a 

 longer period of the year, but the building of 

 these reservoirs is only solving half the problem. 

 If the forests are stripped off, allowing melting 

 snow and rain to rush rapidly to the streams, 

 this flood water will carry soil that will fill the 

 reservoirs as rapidly as they are cleaned out. 

 That this is the result of building reservoirs 

 without proper reforestation of the headwaters 

 of the stream has been evidenced repeatedly 

 in the Alps in France and Italy, and in our own 

 western mountains in California. 



"Forests have a marked influence in conserv- 

 ing the water which falls in the form of rain 

 and snow. The branches of the trees break the 

 force of the rain, letting it fall to the ground 

 and pass into the soil easily. The cover formed 

 by decaying leaves and sticks is a sponge-like 



mass called duff or humus, and this has a great 

 water absorbing capacity. It takes up in pro- 

 portion to its volume a vast quantity of water 

 and frives it off slowly over a period of several 

 months, thus maintaining springs and an even 

 flow in the streams. 



"General uniformity of stream flow in every 

 section of the country will probably be brought 

 about only as the result of widespread and in- 

 te!li?ent reforestation combined with a limited 

 number of large storage reservoirs at the head- 

 waters of streams If in connection with the 

 reforestation of the barren areas, storage reser- 

 voirs are constructed so that the flood waters 

 of soring may be impounded and given off 

 gradually during the dryer seasons of the year, 

 the combination of the two — the forest and the 

 storage reservoirs will come as near solving the 

 problem of uniform flow in our streams as any- 

 thing that can be contrived by man. Proper 

 control of runoff is the only thing that will main- 

 tain a supply of water in streams upon which 

 manufacturing industries are dependent • and 

 insure proper levels for navigation 



While forests act as protectors of the soil and 

 conservers of water, they will be producing a 

 crop of wood that will give increasingly large re- 

 turns. There are, therefore, both direct and 

 indirect benefits to be obtained from the re- 

 forestation of the non-agricultural hillsides and 

 ridges which form so considerable a part of the 

 great state of New York. There should be, 

 therefore, constant co-operation between those 

 who wish to develop the waterpower of the 

 state or cities using water from our forests with 

 the agencies carrying on reforestation. With- 

 out proper forest cover there can not be proper 

 water supply. 



