1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



H7 



grazing. On the other hand areas which 

 were once wooded will again become 

 wooded if protected from fire and stock 

 and left to Nature. 



A destructive fire will undo all that a 

 quarter of a century has accomplished in 

 the way of natural reforestation ; while 

 close cropping by cattle and sheep, for 

 a long series of years, may prove almost 

 equally destructive. 



After carefully studying the open 

 groves of California the opinion is forced 

 upon one that they are the direct result 

 of man's activity. In a recent journey 

 over the California Sierras, north of 

 Lake Tahoe,* I was impressed, in pass- 

 ing over the hydraulic gold regions, by 

 the natural reforestation taking place 

 vvhere, less than fifty years ago, the nat- 

 ural surface was so torn and changed by 

 hydraulic mining that the land was prac- 

 tically denuded of its timber. Bush and 

 tree alike were torn from the hills ; chap- 

 arral and manzanita were uprooted. 

 Finally valleys and mountain sides, for 

 miles in extent, were as barren as the 

 open desert. 



Soil sufficient to support vegetation has 

 been brought by wind and flood to the 

 hydraulic pits, and to the open gashes in 

 the mountain sides, which were originally 

 cut down to bed rock. Half-grown pines 

 and other trees, intermixed with chap- 

 arral and bush, already hide the desola- 

 tion wrought a half century ago. 



One of the finest examples of reforest- 

 ation that this country affords is on 

 General Bidwell's ranch at Chico, Cali- 

 fornia. Forty or more years ago, when 

 General Bidwell acquired this ranch, 



*See June Forester. 



much of it was covered with isolated 

 specimens of large wide-spreading Live 

 Oaks, the individual specimens averag- 

 ing more than four feet in diameter. 

 These trees, growing from five to ten 

 rods apart, formed an open grove, no- 

 where making what might properly be 

 termed a forest. 



Forty acres of this area was fenced and 

 protected from fire and stock. As a 

 result there grew up a dense growth of 

 young Oaks of the same species. Dur- 

 ing the past forty years this growth has 

 produced one of the most uniform and 

 thickly wooded Oak forests in America. 

 The trees, tall and straight, grew close 

 together, and are from one to two and 

 one-half feet in diameter. They stand in 

 marked contrast to the heavily branched 

 old trees nearby. 



The frontispiece in this issue of The 

 Forester, reproduced from a photograph 

 by G. B. Dornin, of San Francisco, has 

 attracted attention because of its splen- 

 did illustration of the process of natural 

 reforestation in the high Sierras. As 

 this region was a forest originally it will 

 revert to its former condition if protected 

 from fire and excessive grazing, and left 

 to natural conditions. 



Under such circumstances, in a few 

 more generations, this entire section of 

 country will show but little effect of the 

 early gold miner, at least so far as forest 

 cover is concerned. But the process is 

 a very slow one. Successful reforesta- 

 tion in the West and Southwest, when 

 the chief desideratum is forest cover, will 

 depend almost entirely upon affording 

 adequate protection upon the lines indi- 

 cated. 



J. W. Toumey. 



