6 Department Circular 2W, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



forestry on the national forests will add stability to the lumber 

 industry and this in turn will aid the prosperity of the State. 



The location of the New Mexico National Forests on the water- 

 sheds of the most important streams of the State has a marked 

 effect upon the prosperity of its irrigated valleys. Much of the 

 water for the important Elephant Butte,- Carlsbad, Rio Hondo, and 

 Eagles Nest projects comes from the National Forests and most 

 irrigated farms on smaller streams are entirely dependent upon 

 waters from these watersheds. Denuding these Forests of their 

 timber and grass would be followed by a rapid run-off of the fallen 

 water, and this would result in floods and the silting of the reservoirs 

 used for irrigation. (Fig. 4.) It is the plan of the Government, 



Fig. 4. — Deforestation and over-grazing cause erosion with resultant floods and silting of 

 irrigation reservoirs. National Forest control prevents this. 



therefore, not only to keep the Forests continuously productive and 

 to handle their timber and other resources for the benefit of the 

 people, but also to care for the irrigation interests of the State. 



Because fire is the greatest enemy of the forests of New Mexico 

 it is also the greatest enemy of the timber and water supply. Be- 

 fore the National Forests were created, forest fires annually de- 

 stroyed millions of feet of timber in the State. Now, however, with 

 a system of lookout towers, telephone lines, and trails, the forest 

 rangers are enabled to detect and reach fires very quickly. Con- 

 sequently over SO per cent of these fires arc extinguished before they 



