GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK _ 5 
Had this destruction gone on unchecked, there 
would in the end have been little timber left in the 
West, and the development of the country, which calls 
for timber not only at certain times but all the time, 
would have been retarded or stopped altogether. 
More than this, the destruction of the forest cover 
on the watersheds supplying hundreds of streams 
which rise in the western mountains would have had 
its certain effect on stream flow—low water or no 
F-36527-A 
FIGURE 1.—The first national forests were established on 
timber-covered areas withdrawn from the public domain 
in the West 
water at all during the long dry periods and destruc- 
tive floods after heavy rains. This, of course, would 
have meant disaster to the systems of irrigation 
by which thousands of farmers raise their crops. 
It would also have very seriously hampered, and 
in many cases prevented, hydroelectric power de- 
velopment. ) 
Congress, therefore, in 1891 authorized the Presi- 
dent to set aside forest reserves, as national forests 
were for some years called, in order to protect the 
