1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



167 



to take the initiative nothing happened. It 

 was in view of this that in 1897 Pennsyl- 

 vania passed the act which made it the 

 duty of the county commissioners to ferret 

 out those responsible for fires, and to bring 

 them into court. The inertia is still so 

 great that the county commissioners have 

 to be requested by Dr. Rothrock to per- 

 form their duty ; but such a request must 

 be complied with and the end is attained. 

 A lever is supplied by which an energetic 

 Forest Commissioner can set the machi- 

 nery in motion. Until this was done, no 

 amount of talking, writing, and passing of 

 acts, did more than a limited amount of 

 good ; but now that the present state of 

 things has been brought about the educa- 

 tion of the harmfully careless can begin. 



A Good Result. 



One of the many good re- 

 sults of the investigation on 

 the New York Preserve will come from 

 the hydrographic work. For years ig- 

 norant, or more often worse than ignorant, 

 damming of the Adirondack streams has 

 been going on with bad results, the reason 

 frequently given being that for some in- 

 dustry or community down the stream a 

 reservoir to regulate its flow was necessary. 

 These excuses could be made to look so 

 plausible, and the arguments brought in 

 their favor to wear so benevolent an aspect, 

 that it was only too simple and easy to pre- 

 suade the state legislature to swallow 

 them. No one knew anything exact about 

 the flow of the streams or their volume, 

 and the few people who might be able to 

 perceive that the real purpose of the dam 

 was to help some lumberman float out his 

 logs could do little. They had nothing 

 definite wherewith to back their argu- 

 ments and support their opinions. Mr. 

 NewelPs surveys will put an end to this 

 state of things. Hereafter statements 

 about the flow of a stream will have to 

 conform to the results of scientific measure- 

 ments, not to the momentary needs of a 

 lumberman. The needless flooding of 

 fields and forests and the other deplorable 

 consequences which have so often followed 

 the building of dams in the past, will no 



longer occur through legislative ignor- 

 ance. 



" The Inexhaust- Within fifteen years school 

 ible Forests." c hil c l re n were learning the 

 phrases of a geography which described 

 the wealth of Washington as being largely 

 in its lumber, and taught that " the forests 

 of this Territory are considered inexhaust- 

 ible." To-day we read that " about 57^ 

 per cent, of the original resources " of the 

 State are still available. Somewhat less 

 than half the remainder has been de- 

 stroyed by fire, somewhat more than half 

 has fallen by the axe. At the same time 

 a correspondent of the ^Mississippi Valley 

 LianbermcDt writes of the timber in the 

 Oregon coast range, which resembles that 

 of Washington: "It is astonishing how 

 fast it is being taken up ; the woods are 

 full of men examining and estimating it, 

 and by the end of the year I think there 

 will be but little land left in the hands of 

 the government unappropriated." A later 

 sentence indicates one of the chief reasons 

 for the rush. "I meet many Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin men, all looking for timber 

 either for themselves or for others." In 

 plain words, the Lake States have been 

 well-nigh cutout, and the lumbermen who 

 skinned them are hurrying to get a foot- 

 hold in the " inexhaustible" forests of the 

 Pacific slope before it is too late. 



To a great extent these lumbermen are 

 in the right. We cannot go to them shout- 

 ing "forbear," or deprive them of their 

 opportunity. But what we can do and 

 should do is to see that the kind of short- 

 sighted destruction which has turned into 

 barren wastes great sections of Michigan 

 and Wisconsin is not repeated. Profitable 

 lumbering can go on without this, if the 

 right precautions are taken. What is 

 needed is, first, investigations of the Pacific 

 forests, in order that ignorance may not 

 characterize their exploitation, and appro- 

 priations for carrying these investigations 

 on ; next a public demand for the passage 

 of any laws they may show the necessity 

 of before it is too late; and finally proper 

 provisions for the rigid enforcement of 

 these laws. Thus onlv can disastrous de- 

 vastation in the Red Fir region be avoided. 



