60 Forest Club Annual 



As one looks down such a stream he cannot but compare the 

 appearance to a similar area that has been swept by a tornado. 



The streams that emerge from the canyons and enter the 

 B,aid Lands have an interesting history. For many rods, some- 

 times perhaps for a mile or more, the straggling arborescent 

 vegetation of the mesophytic canyons follows such streams. 

 The volume of water in the stream gradually diminishes until 

 it is a mere rivulet scarcely trickling over the shale bed. 

 Finally drought is extreme and all flow ceases and then very 

 soon the water disappears completely into the clayey soil. 

 The woody vegetation that follows out such streams becomes 

 dwarfed and unnatural. The trees are stubby specimens with 

 small thick leaves, and many of their herbaceous associates 

 are so different that they might well be given different specific 

 names. Now and then, however, one finds a large cottonwood 

 far out in the Bad Lands that has succeeded in maintaining a 

 foothold where most of its relatives have perished. Dwarf 

 specimens of Juniperus virginiana, in heavy fruit, were com- 

 mon on the extremely dry sides of the Bad Lands gullies which 

 support a very meager flora. 



Portable sawmills have been operated in this region for 

 many years so that much of the timber suitable for lumber 

 has been cut and sawed into dimension stuff for local con- 

 sumption. Little lumber has been exported to distant local- 

 ities from these forests. The species that have been utilized 

 are Pine, Cottonwood and Elm. The region is one in which 

 there is great opportunity for the working out of practical 

 forest principles. A careful study of forest conditions and the 

 adoption of a well prepared working plan would result in 

 making the forests of Pine Ridge a much more useful and 

 valuable asset. 



