MOUNT RAINIER 



from the keen sportsman, and the few survivors must 

 soon be exterminated unless protected by the Govern- 

 ment in a national park. 



The area of the Pacific forest reserve includes valuable 

 timber and important water supplies. It is said to 

 contain coal, gold, and silver. 



The timber on the western slope differs from that on 

 the eastern in size and density of growth and in kinds of 

 trees. The forests of Puget Sound are world-renowned 

 for the magnitude and beauty of their hemlocks, cedars, 

 and firs. Their timber constitutes one of the most im- 

 portant resources of the State. Nowhere are they more 

 luxuriant than on the foothills west and north of Mount 

 Rainier. But their value as timber is there subordinate 

 to their value as regulators of floods. The Puyallup 

 River, whose lower valley is a rich hop garden, is even 

 now subject to floods during the rapid melting of the 

 snow on Mount Rainier in the limited area above timber 

 line. In the broader area below timber line, but above 

 3,000 feet in elevation, the depth of snow in the winter 

 of 1893 was 9 to J S f eet - Protected by the dense 

 canopy of the fir and hemlock trees this snow melts 

 slowly and the river is high from March to June. But 

 let the forest be once destroyed by fire or by lumbermen 

 and the snows of each winter, melting in early spring, 

 will annually overwhelm the Puyallup Valley and trans- 

 form it into a gravelly waste. The same is true of 

 White River and the Nisqually. 



The forests of the eastern slope, tributary to the 

 Yakima, are of even greater importance as water 

 preservers. They constitute a great reservoir, holding 

 back the precipitation of the wet season and allowing 

 it to filter down when most needed by crops. In the 

 Yakima Valley water gives to land its value. Storage 

 of flood waters and extensive distribution by canals 

 is necessary. The forests being preserved to control 

 the water, the natural storage basins should be improved 

 and canals built. For these reasons it is most important 



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