1M CAVADIA\ FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



iff ti* eIe run-off, by which latter is meant that portion of the rainfall which 

 enters the soil and reappears at lower levels in the form of springs. This checking 

 if the surface run-off is due to the rapidity with which forest soils absorb the water 

 j it falls, the ease with which it percolates downward, and the obstruction presented 

 to quick flow over the surface by leaves, twigs, moss, etc., giving the water which 

 does not at once enter the soil more time to penetrate as it moves slowly towards 

 lower levels. A further advantage of forest cover in water conservation is the slow- 

 ness with which the snow melts in the evergreen forest as compared with denuded 

 hillsides, thus preventing disastrous floods in early spring by distributing the flow 

 from the melting snow over weeks instead of days as is the case where it is exposed 

 to "tae full glare of the sun and the sweep of warm winds. On the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky mountains the forest cover has still another and very important function in 

 checking the sweep of the dry Chinook winds, which evaporate the snow so quickly 

 on exposed areas. It has been found that the rate of evaporation from snow surfaces 

 under these conditions is at least several times as rapid as that from a water surface 

 under similar circumstances* A snow fall of a foot or more in the depth may entirely 

 disappear on these hillsides where the forest is wanting, in two or three days without 

 even wetting the soil. To the various factors which have been mentioned as being 

 of value in the forest in preventing the surface run-off and thereby increasing the 

 seepage run-off should be added the decaying roots found in every forest which form 

 canals for the downward percolation of the waters to the deeper soil layers, also the 

 protection against frost in the soil provided by the even blanket of snow. This 

 frequent absence of frost in forest soils enables much snow water to sink into the soil 

 a? it melts which would otherwise be forced to run off superficially. 



The surface run-off or flood water is ever a danger and in large volume is ever a 

 curse. The seepage run-off or spring water is, on the contrary, one of nature's choicest 

 blessings. Having once entered the soil the seepage waters percolate slowly downward 

 to reappear weeks or perhaps, months afterward at lower levels in the form of pure 

 spring water, which must ever be the ideal source of water for domestic use. The 

 streamlets from the springs unite lower down the valleys to form the larger streams, 

 which in their fall over cliffs give man his cheapest power. When the water reaches 

 the plain it may be used again, this time to double, triple, or even quadruple the crops 

 of the farmer by irrigation. Finally the residue passes to the rivers and gives man 

 his cheapest highway for transportation. Truly a story of blessings is the story of the 

 water from the forested mountains. 



In most cases the first step towards the conversion of forest clad hillsides to de- 

 luded slopes with the corresponding conversion of the steady-flowing mountain stream 

 to a torrent when the snow is melting or the rain falling and to a dry bed when there 

 ia neither melting snow nor falling rain, is lumbering. 



Logging may be conducted so as to be ruinous to a forest or it may be merely in- 

 jurious or it may be beneficial. It all depends on how it is done and what happens after 

 wards. Unfortunately a combination of destructive lumbering and its all but certainly 

 following slash fires has proven so disastrous to North American forests that the 

 popular mind has come to associate lumbering an necessarily an evil to the forest. As 

 commonly practised it has been and is exceedingly detrimental to both future wood 

 production and water conservation. In America the absence of a market for the debris 

 feft by the logger is much the greatest hinderance to ideal methods of forest manage- 

 ent. It is fortunately not an insurmountable obstacle and in many cases the value 

 of the forest product is already such as to bring a practical solution within reach and 

 ntable advance in stumpage values will in the near future make it universally 

 There is no reason why the white pine forests of Canada should not be 

 a as to improve the condition of the stand by the removal of all mature and 

 iture timber, and that without endangering the forest, for values are such that 

 wernment can well afford to pay twenty-five cents to burn the debris caused by 



;mg a thousand of logs which is worth from four to seven dollars on the stump. 



