WASTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

 AND NEED FOR CONSERVATION 



BY 

 Mrs. Lydia Adams-Williams, Member of the Women's National Press Association 



years and years and years, derived from the sale of public lands 



with that prodigality which in the Stales where reclamation work- 



ever characterizes those richly en- is done both agricultural and mineral 



dowed, we have like profligates wasted lands, and from water rights as these 



and thoughtlessly destroyed the vast are progressively developed. During 



and apparently unlimited store of the twelve months ending June 30, 



natural resources which a wise and 1907, Sj;. 248,641 were expended. 



beneficent Providence has placed at During the present fiscal year not so 



our disposal. much is to be expended, as the fund 



Facing the firmly established fact originally in hand has been largely re- 



that in the space of a short half cen- duced by the work already done. It 



tury our population will have in- will be replenished by the sums re- 



creased to at least 150,000.000, and ceived from settlers, but these will not 



with the incontrovertible evidence that be turned over to the Reclamation 



our natural resources are rapidly Service until the end of the fiscal year. 



dwindling, the American people, with The estimates for the year ending June 



our indomitable President, Theodore 30, 1908, amount to $12,391,214; and 



Roosevelt, in the lead, have at last for the last half of 1908, some four or 



awakened to a realization of the enor- nvc millions more. 



mous and dangerous waste. Further, At the present time about 250,000 



the truth has been brought home that acres of arid land have been reclaimed, 



upon the fundamental basis of our and b > r 1 9 the number of acres of 



natural resources rests the continu- irrigated land is expected to be 1,600,- 



ance of our unprecedented prosperity - This area is equal to 80,000 



and phenomenal progress, and our farms of twenty acres each ; or homes 



power to advance the cause of human- f r three to five hundred thousand 



ity the world over. people. 



With the view of comprehensively Works practically finished are 



planning the most efficient means of the Minidoka project in Idaho, the 



utilizing and preserving our varied re- Umatilla project in Oregon, the Belle 



sources, a number of Government Fourche in South Dakota, the North 



bureaus have been created, each one Platte in Nebraska and Wyoming, the 



of which deals with a specific branch Shoshone in Wyoming, the Garden 



of the subject. City in Kansas, the Huntley in Mon- 



The United States Reclamation tana, the Carlsbad in New Mexico, and 



Service, which was created in 1902 to the Truckee-Carson in Nevada; of 



carry out the provisions of the Recla- works which are under way, the 



mation Act, has for its especial field largest now in hand are the Roosevelt 



the building of reservoirs and canals dam in Arizona, the Gunnison tunnel 



whereby the floods may be stored and in Colorado, the Shoshone and the 



the waters let out over the thirsty land, Pathfinder dams in Wyoming, the 



thus reclaiming the desert by irriga- Strawberry tunnel in Utah, and the 



tion, and providing homes for thous- Laguna dam between Arizona and 



ands of tillers of the soil. California. 



The funds available for building are The National Drainage Association 



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