FORESTS AND RESERVOIRS 



BY 



F. H. NEWELL 



Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service 



A LL are aware that the Government, through the 

 operation of the Reclamation Act of June i/, 

 1902, is building large irrigation works throughout 

 the West. The fund for that purpose now amounts 

 to about $25,000,000. These works, national in char- 

 acter, are being constructed as rapidly as possible. The 

 protection of these works, their future use, their sta- 

 bility through all time, is largely dependent upon the 

 proper treatment of the forests upon the mountains 

 above the reservoirs. In fact there is hardly a project 

 now under consideration whose future success is not 

 closely joined with the questions of the best use and 

 preservation of the forests and to a less degree of the 

 grazing land immediately adjacent. These works are 

 being built to last for all time, and if they are to be 

 preserved in their best condition, it must be after we 

 have solved this question of the best protection and use 

 of the forest. 



A number of the delegates present have come from 

 the far West. Many others are deeply interested in 

 Western development, not only from general con- 

 siderations, but because the creation of a home in the 

 West means the creation of a home in the manufac- 

 turing districts of the East, and possibly the creation 

 of a home for a man who is employed by the trans- 

 porting interests. The transportation men, so well 

 represented at this Congress, have an immediate and 

 vital concern in this whole subject of conservation of 



