80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



tific information that forests increase rainfall, yet we 

 have certain striking instances presented where the 

 rainfall is greater on adjacent forested areas than on 

 those that are denuded. At least in the arid regions 

 it may be stated that the total annual output from a de- 

 forested drainage basin is greater than from a tim- 

 bered area, but that the regimen of the stream is dis- 

 tinctly to the disadvantage of all who are interested 

 in the use of the watered resources of the country, 

 whether he be navigator, irrigator, or water-power 

 investor. From the denuded area the floods are 

 greater and the drought is more intense. To remedy 

 this condition, one naturally turns to the storage reser- 

 voir for relief, yet even in this extremity one is con- 

 fronted with adverse conditions. The violent flood 

 from the bare basin rushing through the mountains 

 carries with it eroded sediment, which it deposits in 

 the first pool of still water that it encounters. The 

 result is the reduction of the storage capacity of the 

 reservoirs along its course. Forests are the natural 

 and greatest storage reservoirs and regulators of water 

 supply. On few streams do we find reservoir capaci- 

 ties even approximating the total annual output of 

 the drainage basins above them. Accepting the facts 

 as outlined above, the great importance of preserving 

 the forests, particularly in the semi-arid regions of 

 our country, is most manifest. In southern California, 

 Arizona, and New Mexico particularly, we are so 

 closely bordering on a condition of desert that when 

 the forest is once destroyed the difficulty of reproduc- 

 ing it renders the task well nigh hopeless. We should, 

 therefore, all join with the Bureau of Forestry in its 

 effort to "save the forests and store the floods." 



