1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



211 



Valley Water Users' Association in a 

 recent memorial to the Secretary of 

 the Interior requested that land be 

 segrated for reservoir, park, experi- 

 mental and demonstration purposes. 

 Favorable action has been taken by 

 Secretary Hitchcock on this request. 



This work will be of inestimable 

 value in instructing the settlers in the 

 fundamentals of irrigation and dem- 

 onstrating what may be done in that 

 section by the scientific application of 

 water and by dry farming. An es- 

 pecially interesting feature will be the 



name with which it is proposed to 

 grace the reservoir. Out of considera- 

 tion and esteem for the daughter of 

 President Roosevelt the settlers have 

 expressed the desire to christen the 

 artificial body of water "Lake Alice." 

 The lands adjoin the reservoir and are 

 to be parked and beautified with trees, 

 flowers, and shrubbery. Altogether 

 the request is a pretty compliment to 

 the daughter of the man to whose in- 

 telligent and persistent efforts the 

 present work of -reclaiming the arid 

 West is largely due. 



THE PECOS RIVER FOREST RESERVE 



BY 



L. P. KNEIPP 



T - ' HE Pecos River Reserve was the 

 second of the Federal Forest Re- 

 serves to have its economic advantages 

 recognized, it having been created in 

 its original form by Presidential proc- 

 lamation on January II, 1892, and was 

 increased to its present area by a sec- 

 ond proclamation, dated May 27, 1898. 

 It is also entitled to the credit of being 

 the first of all the Federal Reserves to 

 be trod by the foot of the white man. 

 for almost within its limits are the 

 villages first visited by the hard fight- 

 ing caballeros that followed Coronado 

 in his search for the fabled seven cities 

 in 1 54 1. Notwithstanding this fact 

 much of the reserve is still a country 

 whose splendid stands of timber have 

 not yet felt the ever-advancing and all- 

 destroying axe of the railroad tie con- 

 tractor, whose onward march, how- 

 ever, has halted only at the boundaries 

 of the reserve. 



This reserve is situated in about the 

 center of the north half of the Terri- 

 tory of New Mexico, and covers parts 

 of Santa Fe, San Miguel, Mora, and 

 Rio Arriba counties. Topographically 

 it comprises two ranges of mountains 

 known locally as the Santa Fe range, 

 and the Las Vegas range, both of 



which are spurs of the Sangre de Cris- 

 to range, which forms part of the 

 Rocky Mountain system, the altitude 

 ranges from 7,500 feet to 13,350 feet, 

 but the average elevation is from 8,000 

 to 10,000 feet. 



The area of the reserve is 430,880 

 acres, or a trifle over 673 square miles ; 

 approximately speaking this acreage is 

 divided about as follows : Merchant- 

 able timber, 200,000 acres; old burns 

 now undergoing the slow process of 

 natural reforestation, 100,000 acres ; 

 the balance, 130,880 acres, consists of 

 open park and mountain meadow graz- 

 ing land, and the barren peaks of the 

 higher mountains. 



No figures are obtainable regarding 

 the stand of timber on this reserve, 

 and it would appear that no systematic 

 attempt has been made to estimate it 

 yet ; in round figures the reserve con- 

 tains about a half a billion feet board 

 measure of merchantable timber, aver- 

 aging thirty per cent, western yellow 

 pine, the balance chiefly Englemann 

 spruce. 



The most important factor in forest 

 preservation as applied to New Mex- 

 ico is the protection of the main water- 

 sheds to such an extent as to insure 



