118 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



the Washington Highway Commission cut a 

 swath 300 feet wide and then burned the timber 

 against the adjacent forests instead of in the 

 middle of the strip. The result is that one 

 drives for miles through a blasted desert of 

 burned and twisted stumps of what was once a 

 magnificent forest, while the trees on either side 

 have been needlessly scorched and charred with 

 fire, and are frequently girdled by the steel 

 ropes used by the contractors as supports for 

 derricks. All this is reckless waste, and the 

 only defense that the writer heard was that the 

 inhabitants of the state had not yet awakened 

 to a realization of the value of trees and that 

 road builders have "always cut a wide strip for 

 a road so that the sun could dry the mud." The 

 fact that modern roads are concrete and do not 

 need drying has not yet come to their attention. 

 The old-fashioned method of burning under- 

 brush to "improve the forests," an inheritance 

 from Indian days and locally known at "Piute 

 forestry/' is still in the ascendant. 



The great fight, however, of both the Oregon 

 and the Washington Leagues will be to induce 

 the state not to build highways through timbered 

 tracts unless a strip of timber on either side is 

 first secured as part of the right of way. Such 

 an arrangement nearly always can be made with 

 the owners of the timber if the reservation of a 

 strip of trees is made a condition precedent to 

 the construction of the road. A notable example 

 is the new highway now under construction from 

 Ashland to Klamath Falls, Oregon, through 

 some thirty miles of sugar and yellow pine and 

 Douglas fir. If the trees are preserved, this 

 will be one of the most beautiful roads in the 

 world; if they are cut, the road will pass 

 through a desert. 



On the whole, the results of the summer's 

 work. the complete organization of the League 

 in California, and the start made in Oregon and 

 Washington, have undoubtedly inaugurated a 

 movement which will have far-reaching effects. 

 The energy of the earnest and able men now 

 in charge of the California League, and the tre- 

 mendous popular support behind it, probably 

 will solve the problem of the Redwoods of Hum- 

 boldt County. The forests of the north may 

 have to await action by the federal government ; 

 but if the trees along the south fork of the Eel 

 are saved, public sentiment will be overwhelm- 

 ingly in favor of their preservation. 



The task of the Leagues in Oregon and Wash- 

 ington will be harder. The population is less 

 dense and has far less respect for trees. The 

 magnificent Columbia highway, which is prov- 



ing to be a profitable investment for Port- 

 land, may serve as an example, but even there 

 the promoters failed to secure the land along 

 the right of way and will have to pay out 

 large sums to secure the continuance not only 

 of the forests but of the water supply of the 

 falls along the route. The borders of the high- 

 way with its trees could have been secured at 

 the start with but small expenditure. When 

 lumbering operations have completed the destruc- 

 tion of the timber on the mountains above the 

 highway, and Multnomah Falls shall have 

 dwindled away, Oregon probably will awaken 

 to the necessity of preserving such scenic fea- 

 tures as then remain intact. 



In Washington, the contrast between the cool 

 and wooded road within Mount Ranier National 

 Park, which has been built without injury to 

 the trees, and the devastated horror which the 

 State Highway Commission has constructed out- 

 side of the Park boundaries, inevitably will 

 strengthen the hands of the Washington League 

 and perhaps enable it to save the trees along the 

 highway between Tacoma and Seattle, where 

 beautiful forests at the side of the road are 

 now sacrificed for fire wood. 



As this goes to press, the welcome news comes 

 from Bend, Oregon, that the Shevlin-Hixon 

 Lumber Company is considering the creation of 

 a memorial to the late Thomas Shevlin by the 

 dedication of the timber in Tumalo Canon and 

 perhaps along the highway to the purpose. 



With the co-operation of Col. Graves and the 

 Bureau of Forestry, other stretches of timber 

 along new roads may thereafter be set aside 

 systematically so that the Forest Reserves as 

 well as the National Parks can be utilized by 

 the public as driveways and camp sites. The 

 increase of motor traffic especially along the 

 proposed system of highways to connect the im- 

 portant national parks in the far west will make 

 these proposals widely popular. 



Throughout the Pacific states there are every- 

 where evidence of the old competition between 

 the growing enlightenment of the people and the 

 forces of destruction. Old frontier conditions 

 have passed waste of natural resources, scenic 

 or otherwise, sooner or later will be checked and 

 a proper appreciation of the value of an unde- 

 filed nature will succeed but the problem of 

 today is to save for coming generations some 

 substantial portion of our national endowment. 



The author desires to make special acknowl- 

 edgment to Mr. Chas. Punchard, the talented 

 landscape architect of the National Park Serv- 

 ice, who accompanied Mr. Mather and himself, 

 for many of the photographs used in this paper. 



