National Forests and the Intermountaln Region 21 



next comer. As a matter of self-protection as well as out of con- 

 sideration for others, the insanitary practices often indulged in by a 

 thoughtless public should be discontinued. 



SUMMARY 



Though the prosperity of the intermountaln region appears super- 

 ficially to belong entirely to the valleys, it is to a remarkable extent 

 derived from the forest-covered mountains. The development of 

 the fur trade, irrigated farming, the lumber industry, the greater 

 part of the livestock industry, the hydroelectric-power industry, and 

 public recreation — the activities which contribute most to the pros- 

 perity and happiness of the intermountain region — are traceable 

 directly to the wood, water, and forage supplied by the mountains; 

 and the continuance of these activities, as well as their further de- 

 velopment, necessitates the perpetuation of at least as much forest 

 cover as the mountains now have. 



Destroy this vegetation, and though the mountains continued to 

 stand there — bare masses of rock and earth — they would fail to per- 

 form their mission of contributing to the wealth of the region. In- 

 stead of continuing to be prosperous, the intermountain region 

 would degenerate into an American counterpart of the Chinese 

 hinterland, where floods, famine, and poverty have followed close in 

 the train of the devastation of the mountains. 



It is vastly easier to preserve forests and the cover of grass and 

 weeds than to renew them when once destroyed. It is not necessary 

 to go so far as China for proof of the disastrous effects of deforesta- 

 tion, for there are limited areas in the western part of the United 

 States which demonstrate it. In a semiarid climate, nature can heal 

 wounds upon the mountains only slowly. In the meantime erosion 

 and destruction go on more and more rapidly all the time, so that 

 the forces of reconstruction wage a losing fight against them. It is 

 therefore imperative that forest visitors, private forest owners, and 

 the general public cooperate whole-heartedly in working for the 

 perpetuation of the intermountain forests. 



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