132 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



an equable flow in the streams through- 

 out the year, to furnish water for do- 

 mestic and stock purposes. They are 

 not under the terms of the law * created 

 for the protection of game or the preser- 

 vation of wonderful natural objects, 

 although these may be incidentally ac- 

 complished by the creation of the reser- 

 vations. These pleasurable and es- 

 thetic purposes must be cared for by 

 the creation of the national parks, 

 which are to be the playgrounds of the 

 people, while the forest reserves may be 

 said to be their woodlots and natural 

 reservoirs. I should like to see this 

 distinction more generally appreciated. 



Perhaps the strongest single ally in 

 the maintenance and extension of the 

 existing reservations will come from 

 their association with the important ir- 

 rigation projects now just being inaug- 

 urated by the federal government. The 

 men in charge of these projects are fully 

 alive to the important assistance that 

 the forest reservations are destined to 

 be to the cause of irrigation. When 

 the people generally in the arid regions 

 fully appreciate this, we may feel cer- 

 tain that the future of the forest reser- 

 vations is assured, for no reservoir made 

 by the hand of man can equal in cheap- 

 ness and usefulness a great forest. 



The prevention of floods is of the 

 greatest importance, and it is not at the 

 mouth of a river that floods can be pre- 

 vented, but at its source. If the water 

 is allowed to rush down in a flood, vast 

 quantities of detritus will be carried 

 down to constantly fill the river bed 

 below, thus raising its bottom year by 

 year and compelling a corresponding 

 raising of the levees, to which every 

 added foot of height is added danger of 



* This law reads : ' ' May reserve * * * 

 in any part of the public lands wholly or in 

 part covered with timber or undergrowth, 

 whether of commercial value or not, as public 

 reservations. ' ' In the act of June 4, 



J 897) providing for administration, etc., of the 

 reserves, it is declared : " No public forest 

 reservation shall be established except to im- 

 prove and protect the forest within the reser- 

 vation, or for the purpose of securing favorable 

 conditions of water flow, and to furnish a con- 

 tinuous supply of timber for the use and 

 necessities' of citizens of the United States." 

 Timber may be appraised and sold from forest 

 reservations when " compatible with the utili- 

 zation of the forests thereon." 



breaking. Of the large amounts ap- 

 propriated for ' ' river and harbor im- 

 provements" a portion might well be 

 expended in creating and developing 

 forest reservations. When we consider 

 how widely the people of the United 

 States are annually made to suffer loss 

 by floods, we may feel certain that an in- 

 telligent public opinion will demand the 

 most careful supervision and care of 

 every agency tending to prevent these 

 floods. It remains, then, only for the 

 forester to demonstrate how essential 

 the maintenance of forests at the head- 

 waters of the great streams is in pre- 

 venting floods to bring another great 

 element of support to the forest reser- 

 vations in the future. 



This suggests at once that the prob- 

 lem we are dealing with is not gener- 

 ally a state question, but an interstate 

 one ; that it can not be properly cared 

 for by any state legislation, but by its 

 inherent conditions must usually be left 

 to the federal government. Therefore 

 these forest reservations, created to con- 

 serve as well as to furnish timber sup- 

 plies, will in all probability remain fed- 

 eral reservations. In their development 

 national questions must be considered 

 paramount. While it is to be hoped 

 that in all of the states having forest 

 lands at the headwaters of streams there 

 will be established forest reservations, 

 the title to such lands having passed 

 into the hands of private owners, this 

 can not be expected at an earl) 7 date. 

 When such reservations are made, some 

 plan for their administration in conso- 

 nance with the purposes of the federal 

 reservations must be worked out. The 

 future holds here a wide field for con- 

 structive legislation. 



Let us now consider some of the more 

 detailed developments that the future 

 has in store for the forest reservations. 

 The first is a gradual determination 

 of their permanent boundaries. When 

 many of these reservations were pro- 

 claimed, the regions where they are 

 located were unsurveyed, or only in 

 part surveyed. This necessitated their 

 proclamation by natural boundaries, 

 which were more or less indefinite, or 

 by description with theoretically ex- 

 tended township and range lines. It 



