THE FORESTS AND DESERTS OF ARIZONA* 



By Bernhaud E. Fernow, Ph.D., T.L.I)., etc.. 



Chief of the Dirislon of Forestru, U. S. Depnrtwent of A(jriruUure 



It is a notal)le fact that l)Ut few of our jK-ojjle liavo any adf- 

 quate conception of the vastness and the varied condition.s of 

 their country, and still less do they realize its opportunities for 

 future growth. The horizon of the majority, even of those wlio 

 have made liasty overland trips, rarely reaches heyond the limits 

 of their personal observation, and as to the possil)ilities of the 

 future — even those who have studied our past development fail 

 to realize them. Our imagination — save in the professional 

 boomer — lags behind reasonable expectation. 



When I told my friends that a happy accident — tiie invitation 

 of a generous and public-spirited friend — would take me for tlie 

 summer months to and through Arizona, two exjiressions were 

 most frequent: one of commiseration at my prospects of sum- 

 mer temperatures, the other a somewhat astonished inquiry as 

 to what a forester could find of interest in that country of cactus 

 and desert. That a large part of the territory of Arizona can 

 boast of an ideal summer climate, unequaled for camping, was a 

 revelation to them; and that some of the most interesting moun- 

 tain forests — botanically speaking — are to be found tlien', and 

 the most lovely and most extensive, as \\^ell as most economi- 

 cally important pineries that exist between the great forests of 

 the Pacific coast and the Avestern border of the Atlantic forest 

 ill Texas and Arkansas, a thousand miles away in eitlier direc- 

 tion — this seemed to them almost incredible. 



Why should this i)articular forest area become a subject of in- 

 vestigation ? The question is worthy of answer. Here is a ter- 

 ritory still undeveloped, still undespoiled for the larger part — a 

 territory needing for its best future development not only the 

 material which these forest areas can furnish forever, but depend- 

 ent on irrigation for its agricultural future, and thus re<iuiring 

 that protection of its water sources which a forest cover is sup- 

 posed to afford. Would it not be wisdom to study the relation 

 of this resource to the whole development of the country, and 



*An address delivered before the National Geographic Society, Feliniary :.. I8ii7 



203 



