OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 



57 



It is but few of our people who have ever given time and 

 thought enough to the question to appreciate what an import- 

 ant part the forest land plays in the maintenance of waterflow 

 in our vitally important streams. In the same way few realize 

 that forest land constitutes our greatest agency of protection from 

 devastating floods. 



Appleton has said of forestry that first it furnishes wood 

 and other products, useful materials without which human civili- 

 zation would be greatly impeded, if not impossible and secondly 

 it furnishes a certain cover for the soil and secures the influence 

 which such cover has on climate and on water conditions. 



This object has been only vaguely felt, he has written, until 

 in more recent times experimental proof has been brought to 

 the relations of the forests to the weather and to the water flow. 

 Natural forest conditions consist in dense growth, mixed growth 

 and undergrowth. 



So far as any one of these conditions is deficient or lacking 

 by so much is the forest short of the ideal. Reduced evapora- 

 tion is forest condition. Shade reduces evaporation. Dense 

 growth furnishes not only straight clear timber but shade. Mixed 

 growth alone can preserve a continuous shade for a long time. 

 Undergrowth assists in keeping the ground shaded. 



Reforestation of Cook County lands is one of the problems 

 which in my opinion gives the board of forest preserve commis- 

 sioners an opportunity for service second in importance only to 

 the conservation of the existing woodland. We have taken some 

 steps in that direction. 



BLUFFS, PALOS PARK PRESERVE. 



