42 
satisfy a present momentary need, and clear the land regardless of any 
consequences to future supply, or proper management, or forest con- 
ditions, utilizing only whatever part of the trees they may readily use | 
or require, leaving the balance in the most wasteful manner on the 
ground, is attested by those acquainted with the manner of timber-cut- 
ting in those regions. Any sign of intelligent and systematic manage- 
ment which would insure a full utilization and continuity of the same 
is, of course, absent and is not encouraged by present regulations under 
the existing laws, and local supplies are waning inmany parts. While 
in view of the needs of local supply for mining operations, especially in 
mines yielding low-grade ores, which cau not bear the burden of heavy 
charges for the importation of their timbering, this is an undesirable 
prospect, a much more serious danger is threatening the community at 
large in and around these mountain regions. 
The climate, as will be seen from the paper of Mr. Parsons included in 
this report, is, in many parts of the region, not favorable to tree growth; 
at least not to the germination of seeds of coniferous trees, which form 
there the natural growth, except under specially favorable conditions, 
while broad-leaved trees of economic importance are not naturally found 
in the region, or only in small, quantity. These unfavorable conditions 
are, by the act of man, made still more unfavorable. The wholesale 
clearing which is practiced lays bare the thin soil to the influence of 
drying sun and wind; fires that sweep over the ground without bind- 
rance destroy the thin mold and whatever seedlings may have been on 
it, and thus natural recuperation of the forest is made impossible, and 
any attempt at artificial reforesting is almost precluded. Barrenness 
and desolation is, as a ruie, the result, except that in more favorable 
situations the quaking aspen, of little economic use, may find a foot- 
hold, covering the nakedness of which nature has become ashamed. 
If, in view of so much graver consequences, it were permissible to 
allude to it, 1 would impress upon those who take a delight and a pride 
in the charms with which nature has endowed our country, vying with 
the finest scenery of Europe, that the beauty of the once verdant mount- 
ain sides is being ruthlessly and needlessly destroyed, and with such 
general equanimity is this devastation considered that we may soon sub- 
stitute in our dictionaries the word ‘““Americanism” for ‘ vandalism.” 
What the graver consequences are can be readily understood by those 
who have studied the history of deforestation and forest devastation in 
southern France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and those far eastern coun- 
tries which compare somewhat in climatic aspects with the region in 
question. 
Not only is the forest cover of the mountain crests destroyed when 
it might have yielded continuous supplies, but at the same time agri- 
culture in the valleys below is first endangered and then made impossi- © 
ble. | ) 
In a region which, like most of the plains of Idaho, Montana, Wyo- 

