MAINTAINING THE CLIMAX 



97 



has forced the planning of an additional reservior, recently com- 

 pleted at a cost of millions. 



Forest Destruction: One-third of U. S. forest land has been con- 

 verted to farms. Not more than half the original forests now carry 

 any commercial timber, even of low quality. Not more than one-third 

 are producing trees large enough to be called saw-logs. The 1944 re- 

 port of the Chief of the U. S. Forest Service estimated that cuttm* 

 forest fires, and disease were, in that year, destroying trees twice as 

 fast as they were growing, and that saw timber was goino- out five 

 times as fast. (Fig. 52) 



Overgrazing: Of our 728,000,000 acres of rangeland, 37 percent 

 js severely depleted ; 16 percent is nearly devastated by overgrazing. 10 



OBascd on U. S. Forest Services figures, which themselves are approximations. 

 10 Keuner, G. T., op. cit., p. 124. 



the 



' r* ^iV 1 ^ 11 2 - years the Ma -y f air Mills power reservoir at Spartans- 



C ;: was * lled . Y^ h mud ' This is not Particularly hilly country, yet the 

 nvtT a - rS * hed have C01 l tritou * e d a lakeful of soil. The soil was lost! 

 investment in dam, reservoir, and powerhouse was lost; jobs were lost 

 recreational values were lost. What was gained? One mudhole 





m 



