534 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



This was carried out, and the results 

 were marvelous. The grasses soon 

 came back ; the weeds and underbrush 

 again covered the ground, and, as fires 

 were kept out, the barren, over-grazed 

 areas began to resume their original 

 appearance. The falling leaves and 

 other decaying vegetation once more 

 began to cover the bare ground, with 

 its soft, spongelike humus, and Dame 

 Nature has done her best to erase the 

 scars due to man's stupidity and short- 

 sightedness. 



The floods, too, began to be less fre- 

 quent and less severe, and for the last 

 three years the little city of Manti has 

 almost forgotten that there ever were 

 any troubles over floods. 



During the month of August, 1909, 

 there was an unusual amount of rain- 

 fall in the area covered by the Manti 

 forest. This was uniform all over the 

 region, and from each canyon on the 

 eastern slope of the range came heavy 

 floods. 



On the western slopes the same con- 

 ditions prevailed and damaging floods 

 swept down every canyon but that of 

 Manti. The floods in the Ephraim 

 Canyon, which lies immediately north 

 of the Manti Canyon, did a great amount 

 of damage to the little city of Ephraim, 

 covering its fields and the streets of the 

 town with a heavy deposit of mud, 

 rocks, and driftwood. All these canyons 

 on both sides of the range head in ap- 

 proximately the same region ; all re- 

 ceived apparently an equal amount of 

 rainfall ; yet the Manti Canyon alone 

 was free from damaging floods. 



The settlers living in the flooded re- 

 gions are unanimous as to the reasons 

 why they suffer from these annual flood 

 troubles, whereas the Manti people do 

 not, and they are now asking for simi- 

 lar protection to their watershed. 



Then some stockmen from another 

 section, seeing the feed on this water- 

 shed uneaten and, in their greedy eyes, 

 going to waste, coveted it. They ap- 

 pealed to the Forester to allow them to 

 graze their stock upon the proscribed 

 area. 



This appal was as a trumpet call to 

 the men of Manti. Almost as one, they 

 begged the government not to allow any 

 grazing upon their watershed. They 

 pointed to the old conditions which ex- 

 isted before the mountains were set 

 aside as a forest, and then to the present 

 conditions, as full justification for the 

 restriction. They urged that the pros- 

 perity of their community of more than 

 3,000 people was of far more value to 

 the state of Utah than was the feed 

 which the stockmen desired. 



Nor did their pleading fall upon deaf 

 ears. The request of the stockmen was 

 refused. And, doubtless, just as long 

 as the safety of the Manti fields depend 

 upon the protection of these hills, so 

 long will all stock be denied the privi- 

 lege of grazing over them. 



There are some who affect to scoff 

 at these facts, but if the}- will go to 

 Manti and study them they will find it 

 hard work to convince those Manti 

 farmers that the removal of the pro- 

 tective soil cover on their watershed 

 had nothing whatever to do with the 

 floods. 



