178 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



have been destroyed. In Cowlitz and 

 Clarke counties, in one fire 200,000,000 

 feet of state timber were destroyed. 

 Here the state lost $200,000, and this 

 is only a single instance. 



This legislature has in its power to 

 create here in this great common- 

 wealth a school fund of magnificent 

 proportions that will very materially 

 aid in the establishment and mainte- 

 nance of our educational institutions, 

 that will become a pride to the state, a 

 boon to every school child in all the 

 years to come. No burden is so heavy, 

 yet so willingly borne, as that of prop- 

 er school facilities. Here you have 

 the power to aid the taxpayer by man- 

 aging these lands as would any trustee 

 to the end that the greatest returns for 

 the greatest time might flow into the 

 school funds. To do this : 



First. Reserve title to all school 

 lands not suitable for agriculture. 



Second. Sell only such timber sepa- 

 rate from the land at its full market 

 value, as it is necessary to prevent it 



from destruction, and as is necessary 

 in the course of ordinary logging op- 

 erations. 



Third. Enact a law that will guard 

 the virgin timber of the uncut lands 

 and the young growth of the cut-over 

 lands from fire so that they may not 

 become a blackened, desolate waste of 

 no value, but, instead, lands that will 

 each year grow into greater value to 

 the increase of the school fund trust. 



The opportunity and responsibility 

 for giving the state lands proper pro- 

 tection lies with the present legisla- 

 ture. Up to this time not a single word 

 has been said on the subject in either 

 house or senate. Those people whose 

 timber is burning up every year 

 through official inaction, those who 

 wish to see Washington the very fore- 

 most state in educational equipment; 

 every parent, every school child, should 

 see that this subject is taken up this 

 session and the legislature made to 

 protect the school trust imposed 

 upon it. 



THE GILA RIVER FOREST RESERVE 



THE Gila River Forest Reserve, 

 which was established by procla- 

 mation of President McKinley on 

 March 2, 1899, was examined in the 

 summer of 1903 by Mr. Theodore F. 

 Rixon, of the United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey. Besides examining the 

 lands Mr. Rixon made a rough sur- 

 vey of the area and prepared a recon- 

 naissance map. 



The reserve includes several promi- 

 nent mountain ranges, the principal of 

 which are the San Francisco, the Tu- 

 larosa, the Mogollon, and the Black. 

 The southwest corner of the reserve 

 is, generally speaking, a rolling coun- 

 try with man}- prominent buttes, and 

 is without trees except a light growth 

 of scrub timber in patches. The ex- 

 treme southwestern portion, in which 

 Mount McMullen raises its barren 

 summit, is very rocky and abrupt. 



Here the country drops perpendicu- 

 larly several hundred feet into a des- 

 ert tributary to San Francisco River, 

 which lies distant 20 miles or more to 

 the west. The reserve as a whole is 

 well watered, all the streams from 

 the mountain ranges carrying a con- 

 siderable flow for a long distance be- 

 yond the forest regions. It is trav- 

 ersed by fairly good roads and trails, 

 which follow 7 the valleys. 



Agriculture is carried on extensive- 

 ly along San Francisco River and 

 there are a few farming settlements 

 along Gila River, but no large agricul- 

 tural area exists anywhere within the 

 confines of the reserve. By introduc- 

 ing reservoirs and irrigating ditches 

 the amount of available agricultural 

 land could be largely increased. The 

 market for the products of this dis- 

 trist is so distant, however, being in 





