[890. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



3i 



safe and economical means to this end. frontispiece is a view of the site of a pro- 



With the widest possible extension of posed reservoir. It will be noted that, 



protective forest area there would yet be although each is surrounded by a forest 



a necessity for the construction of a great growth, in neither case is it of such a 



many storage reservoirs. On page 37 character as to prove effective in the con- 



The Forester presents a view of a large servation of water, hence the necessity 



reservoir already constructed. The of reservoir construction. 



Grazing. 



Mr. John Muir, the veteran California 

 mountaineer, writes a private letter, 

 dated at Martinez, Cal., January 10, 

 1899, to a friend in this city, from which 

 The Forester is permitted to make the 

 following extract : 



'I suppose you know that 200,000 

 sheep invaded the Sierra Forest Reser- 

 vation this last season under a temporary 

 concession made by the Secretary of the 

 Interior, and did incalculable damage. 

 The other California reservations most 

 of them and also the National Parks 

 were overrun, trampled and desolated 

 almost as completely as the Sierra Reser- 

 vation ; and I have just been informed 

 that certain land and sheep speculators 

 have sent on agents to Washington to 

 obtain leases of the entire Reservation 

 ,for grazing purposes during the coming 

 season. This scheme I trust you will 

 oppose to the utmost of your power and 

 opportunity. Not a single Hock of sheep 

 should be allowed on any of the dry 

 mountain reservations." 



This statement of Mr. Muir is cor- 

 roborated by information contained in a 

 letter from a Federal forest officer in 

 California. He says : 



"A land speculator is now in Washing- 

 ton for the purpose, among others, of 

 obtaining the consent of the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior to the granting of 

 leases in this reservation for sheep- 

 grazing purposes. He represents perhaps 

 ten, and possibly twenty, sheep owners. 

 Last season a special concession was made 

 by the Secretary of the Interior to the 

 sheep men, on account of the failure of 

 feed in the San Joaquin Valley, and 

 elsewhere. About 200,000 sheep were 

 driven into the reservation. The injury 



which these sheep wrought in this part 

 of the public domain is patent to every- 

 one who has traversed any considerable 

 part of the reservation. If the same 

 ratio of injury were maintained, in less 

 than fifty years there would be no forests 

 there worth protecting. 



"If the object of making such reserva- 

 tions is to preserve the forests, and the 

 water resources, then that purpose will 

 be defeated by allowing sheep grazing 

 as is desired by a very few men. De- 

 forestation has already begun here. The 

 prevailing climatic conditions are en- 

 tirely different from those which exist 

 in the reservations in more northern lati- 

 tudes. There the rainfall is very great, 

 the streams are strong and full in the 

 summer season ; the undergrowth is 

 rank; and it may be that sheep grazing 

 under such conditions would not result 

 in any great damage to the forests. I 

 can only speak with certainty of this 

 reservation where I have made extended 

 personal observations. The climate 

 here is semi-tropical. The reservation 

 is in what may be called the dry belt. 

 Hardly more than five to seven inches 

 of rainfall can be expected. The 

 mountain streams flowing out of the 

 reservations have been greatly dimin- 

 ished. The waters no longer flow in the 

 summer season across these great arid 

 plains. A part of this shrinkage of 

 streams can be traced directly to sheep 

 grazing. The sheep destroy the under- 

 growth, and their herders are the prolific 

 source of the great number of fires 

 which break out in the reservation. 

 They change the spongy character of 

 the ground ; they produce aridity and 

 desolation wherever they go. The pro- 



