NATIONAL FORESTS AND THE WATER SUPPLY 



1515 



region, should also not be overlooked. To the Pikes 



Peake region come thousands of visitors every year, 



attracted by the scenery and climate. Periodically dry 



streams and eroded stream beds 



are far from attractive, and in 



helping to prevent erosion and to 



maintain a steady stream flow 



the forest adds materially to the 



value of the region for the tourist 



and pleasure seeker. 



Some Results of Forest 

 Destruction. 



How any interference with the 

 protective cover of trees and 

 other vegetation works to the 

 detriment of the water user is 

 illustrated by the history of a 

 small stream on the Pike Forest 

 known as Trail Creek. This was 

 originally a clear stream confined 

 to a narrow channel and with 

 comparatively little erosion. 

 Gradually, however, the charac- 

 ter of the stream changed as a 

 result of heavy cutting on its 

 watershed, prior to the creation 

 of the National Forest and on 

 private lands included within the 

 Forest boundaries, followed by a 

 number of severe forest fires. 

 Floods became more frequent, 

 erosion set in, the stream beds 

 were widened, and their bottoms 

 began to fill up with sand and 

 gravel washed down from above. 



In April, 1914, a heavy flood 

 occurred which wrought serious 

 damage to a small ranch at the 

 mouth of the creek. Approxi- 

 mately 11 acres of irrigated land, 

 worth $40 an acre and including 

 nearly a fourth of the irrigated 

 land on the ranch, were buried 

 under from 18 to 30 inches of 

 coarse gravel and rendered prac- 

 tically worthless. Furthermore, 

 the flood filled up the irrigat- 

 ing ditches so completely and 

 changed the course of Trail 

 Creek so markedly as to make 

 it impossible to continue the use 

 of water from the creek for irri- 

 gation without going to consid- 

 erable expense in the construc- 

 tion of new improvements. In 

 August of the next year a heavy 

 hailstorm resulted in another flood which washed out 

 several acres of hay land along the creek bottom and 

 ruined 16 tons or more of hay worth $14 a ton. The 



same storm also brought down an immense amount of 

 gravel in an ordinary dry gulch running through the 

 farm and piled this 2}i feet deep against the kitchen 



Upper.- 

 Lower.- 



EVERYWHERE THE NATIONAL FORESTS AND THE MOUNTAINS COINCIDE 



Washington, with Council Lake in 

 Washington, with 



Headwaters of Lewis River in the Rainier National Forest 



foreground and Mount Adams in background. 

 ■Typical view of the Cascade Mountains in the Columbia National Forest 



Mount St. Helens in background. 



door. Altogether, the floods of these two years damaged 

 this one small ranch to the extent of at least $600 and 

 rendered approximately one-fourth of it practically non- 



