14 



MISCELLANEOUS CIRCULAR KG. 61 



heavy run-off in the spring and low water through midsummer. 

 This waste reduces the amount of water available for irrigation at 

 the very time of the year it is needed most, and curtails the amount 

 of power that may be generated. (Fig. 7.) 



Forest fires, overgrazing, and reckless cutting of timber are the 

 primary destructive agencies which can convert a green slope on an 

 important watershed into a denuded waste. Especially is this true 

 in south Idaho, where the water resources of the mountains have 

 their highest value and where nature finds it more difficult to heal 

 scars caused by fires or overgrazing. 



RECREATION 



The national forests were created to produce timber and regulate 

 stream flow, but they have many other uses incidental to these 

 main purposes, one of which is recreation. The forests of Idaho 



Fig. 



-The Arrowrock is one of the many reservoirs whose water comes from a 

 watershed protected by national forests 



contain a wide variety of scenery, which is everywhere attractive and 

 in many places inspiring. 



Many parts of the forests are easily reached by automobile. Some 

 of them are traversed by main highways, and others are to some 

 extent accessible through branch roads. They also contain many 

 large areas that can be reached only by pack trail or on foot without 

 the aid of trails. In fact, they contain relatively large areas of 

 what is popularly termed " back country," where, with the exception 

 of the Forest Service trails, telephone lines, and lookout stations, 

 the country remains in its natural state. It is in this back country 

 that the best fishing is to be had and that the larger game animals 

 still exist in great numbers. It has been estimated that the national 

 forests of Idaho support 40,000 large game animals — white tail and 

 black tail deer, elk, moose, mountain sheep, mountain goats, and 

 bear. 



