1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



129 



fires, an evil that does more than any 

 other one thing to destroy our forests. 

 It is also their duty to prevent timber 

 depredations, infringement against the 

 land laws of the country and to enforce 

 the State laws in protection of game and 

 fish within the limits of the respective re- 

 serves. 



This is a subject which should be dear 

 to the heart of every true American ; it 



is a subject so large, of such immeasur- 

 able possibilities, of so vast importance, 

 that a far abler pen than mine is needed 

 to adequately set forth its value. Other 

 nations receive great profit from their 

 forests, why should not we ? And then 

 think of the future, think of posterity. 

 My friends, it will, and it has a right, to 

 hold us, in this enlightened age, respon- 

 sible. J. Blatchford Collins. 



What Shall We Uo For The Forest? 



A Symposium in Four Papers. 



I. AN OBJECT LESSON OF FOREST DESTRUCTION. 



There is an "object lesson" of forest 

 destruction on the regimen of water -flow 

 in the streams and ravines of Jefferson 

 County, Colorado, and its mountain 

 neighbors, the mining counties of Gilpin 

 and Clear Creek, since their settlement 

 forty years ago. My observations began 

 in May, i860, and have been more or less 

 continuous since that period, excepting 

 from May, 1862, to August, 1866, at 

 which latter date I returned from army 

 life. 



In 1 860 the creek valleys and the 

 mountains of these three counties were 

 filled with Pines and Firs, and the creek 

 bottoms were fringed with Alders and 

 Willows. Clear brooks, never dry in mid- 

 summer, were to be found in every bushy 

 ravine. Vasque Fork of the South 

 Platte (now called Clear Creek) flowed 

 clear. Snows and rains never swelled it 

 disastrously, even in June, and its afflu- 

 ents rarely appeared discolored by mud, 

 which in the main stream itself was but 

 very slightly discolored. Beautiful trout 

 abounded in all the larger creeks, and 

 well it deserved the name of Clear Creek. 



In 1860-61-62 the unceasing rush to 

 the gold mines of these three counties 

 began the wholesale destruction of their 

 forest for fuel and mine timbering and 

 for the erection of thousands of cabins 



and stamp mills, mining timbers espe- 

 cially requiring the best trees. This 

 wholesale consumption of our forest was 

 still further hastened by destructive fires 

 caused by criminal carelessness and in- 

 difference. 



As these elements of use continued un- 

 abated as years rolled on, in 1875-76 all 

 the trees surrounding the mining camps 

 and those in the most accessible slopes 

 disappeared until the denudation forced 

 the mills, mines and saw-mills to draw 

 their supplies from the denser forests of 

 central ranges, while the sparsely-tim- 

 bered foot-hills occupied by farms, and 

 the necessities of the prairie farmers for 

 fuel and fencing completed the denuda- 

 tion of all the accessible trees of the foot- 

 hills. 



Following this condition in the seven- 

 ties, Clear Creek and its affluents, Ral- 

 ston, Beaver, North Fork Clear Creek 

 and Soda Creek, began to show the force 

 of denudation of forest growth. . The 

 winter snows melted more rapidly on the 

 bare mountain slopes, and their drainage 

 increased in rapidity, followed, as the re- 

 sult, with total cessation of flow or re- 

 markable and early diminution of their 

 former abundant supply. The smaller 

 gulches which, in the Spring, when shel- 

 tered by Willows and timber growth, gave 



