190 1 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 





range. There is the same precipitation in 

 each, but the San Gabriel has been repeat- 

 edly burned until much of the area is nearly 

 bare, and consequently the water conserv- 

 ing power is seriously impaired. The San 

 Antonio basin has been burned but little, 

 and the covering in most part is intact. 



Bear Valley, in the San Bernardino 

 reserves, contained in i860 two large 

 lakes, each covering more than a section, 

 and about 5,000 acres of rich meadow. 

 Late in the sixties, sheep were driven into 



During a dry year in the valleys, just 

 the time when the mountains should 

 undisturbed, there would be the great 

 desire on the part of stock men to di 

 their herds to the mountains; at that time 

 also, there is more danger of fire. Stock 

 is driven into forest reserves every y< 

 presumably to be fed on owned or leased 

 land. I have one case in mind where -<, 

 cattle were driven into a leased meadow, 

 capable of feeding no more than 200 head. 

 Cattle are turned loose and roam at laree. 



1 . 



the valley, and during several of the first destroying the grasses and little conifers 



years of herding, at least 30,000 sheep 

 were pastured there. Later the feed be- 

 came scanty and the number was decreased 

 until at the end of twenty years of grazing, 

 the number was reduced to 2,000 and the 

 food was poor for that number. There 

 were formerly large streams which not 



on all slopes; hence, all stock herded in 

 the reserves on private holdings should be 

 under fences, ingress and egress to which 

 should be compelled by roads. 



The total assessed value of all the sheep 

 and cattle in the seven counties of south- 

 ern California is $1,200,000, while the 



only kept the lakes full, but discharged assessed value of the property dependent 



through the summers large volumes of 



water. Now the lakes are dry and the 



streams have so diminished that during 



five months of the year the streams do not 



reach the outlet of Bear Valley Dam. 



The slopes of the mountain forming the 



on the water conversed in our reserves is 

 $160,000,000. It is clearly seen which is 

 the paramount interest. People with 

 homes in the reserves are a help in keep- 

 ing down fires, but the people who go in 

 for a frolic should be under watchful re- 



watershed of Bear Valley, once so rich in straint, if permitted to go at all. 

 tree and bunch grass covering, are nearly Lumbering in southern California has 



bare. Natural reforesting, as conifers always been unprofitable to the investors, 



matured and died, was precluded by the owing chiefly to the inaccessibility of the 



sheep, since they ate all little conifers as timber regions. The mountains are so 



thev showed themselves above ground. 



The Vandeventer Valley, in the San 

 Jacinto Reserve, comprising about 3,000 

 acres, had not been disturbed by man or 

 beast up to 1S70. In that year 2,000 cat- 

 tle were driven in, and were soon fattened 

 on the luxuriant growth of grass. A large 

 stream flowed through the meadow from 

 Toro Mountain. This herding of cattle 

 was continued for twelve years. I visited 

 this valley last summer and found no 

 grass, no water, and nothing growing in the 

 valley but worthless sage-brush. Every- 

 where I find the most distressingly evil ef- 

 fects of stock grazing in the forest re- 

 serves. It is not feasible to regulate stock 

 grazing; where communities depend upon 

 water for irrigation, who can determine 

 the number of sheep or cattle that can be 

 herded without destroying or seriously in- 

 juring paramount interests? 



precipitous that to reach the pine and fir 

 forests necessitates the building and main- 

 taining of very expensive roads, over 

 which to haul the lumber. Then the pro- 

 digal extravagance so universally dis- 

 played where something is acquired for 

 nothing is conspicuous here; the scrap 

 heap is much larger than the lumber piles. 

 The trees fit for milling grow at an eleva- 

 tion of from 5,000 to S,ooo feet. The trees 

 grew sparsely, and in consequence the 

 limbs are large and grow low, resulting 

 in knotty lumber, and a waste of at least 

 one-half the tree: worse than waste, for 

 the lopings are left to dry and become 

 a menace to the new forest. 



A sad sight it is to see a deforested area 

 in our semi-arid country, where a tree is 

 so valuable as a water conserver. It is a 

 desolate picture. The same crop could 

 be harvested by the forester and his trained 



