FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 255 
flow of streams and the size of springs before and after the trees are 
cut from above them, the balance is in the favor of the open country.”* 
In the current literature upon this subject one invariably encoun- 
ters the same fallacious assumption, that because the forests delay 
melting their action is therefore beneficial. The fact is entirely over- 
looked that delay means concentration and greater intensity of run-off, 
while the open country prolongs the melting and gives a more even 
distribution. If the true action of forests in this respect, however; is 
rarely recognized by public writers, it is recognized, though perhaps 
unconsciously, by those who are benefited by it. The monthly reports 
of the Weather Bureau in the Rocky Mountain region are instructive 
reading in this connection. The following are a few extracts from 
those sent in to the Central Office of the Western Montana district at 
Helena: 
“Where there is no timber to break the force of the winds solid 
drifts of considerable depth have collected.” * * * “The snowfall 
has been very light and the drifts are not large or solid enough to fur- 
nish an adequate flow of water in the streams.” * * * “Tn some 
sections the winter’s snowfall has been the lightest for many years, and 
as there is little likelihood that the later snows will form solid drifts, 
it is practically certain that the flow of water in most streams will be 
inadequate for irrigation and mining purposes.” 
These extracts, which could be multiplied indefinitely, show how 
well the practical ranchman understands the value of snow-drifts. It 
has always been a mystery to the writer that writers will persist in 
statements like the following, which appears in one of the ablest 
addresses at the recent Conservation Conference in Washington: 
“The possibility of irrigation depends largely on the preservation of 
the forest cover of the mountains, which catches and holds the melt- 
ing snows, and thus forms the great storage reservoirs of nature.” 
The forests destroy the reservoirs, and the flow would be more uni- 
form, prolonged and plentiful, if they were not there. 
It will doubtless be urged that while the foregoing conclusions may 
hold for an elevated and densely wooded region, they will not hold 
*The writer recalls only a single other writer who has set forth this matter in 
accordance with the facts, and that was an anonymous correspondent in a recent 
issue of the Pacific Sportsman. His view of the case is summarized in rather terse 
language as follows: ‘‘Trees in the mountains make floods in the spring.” * * * 
“Snow in the timber melts too fast. The timber keeps it from drifting.” * * * 
“The agency which maintains the river is the snow in the huge drifts.” * * * 
“That (the dr!*t) is your reservoir that feeds the living streams of summer time.” 
* @ € “The (imber has nothing to do with the water supply but is a result of 
the water supply.” 
