Notes and Correspondence 



203 



rows of incense cedars were planted, hardy trees that seem to thrive 

 under various conditions, and grow at a rapid rate. Thus it will be 

 seen that a generous beginning has been made toward the beautifying 

 of the Valley floor; a beginning which it is to be hoped will be fol- 

 lowed up from year to year. 



As the Major well points out, work of this sort really requires the 

 services of an experienced forester, a man thoroughly familiar with 

 the life of the forest, and withal, sensitive to the esthetic qualities of 

 the landscape. It seems strange to reflect that no specialist of this 

 type should ever have been among the employees of the Yosemite 

 National Park, a reservation of more than iioo square miles, whose 

 main scenic asset lies in its magnificent forests (I, for one, would 

 place these above its mountain sculpture). May the time come soon 

 when the care of the trees in the Yosemite National Park will be 

 deemed a matter of sufficient importance to justify the permanent ap- 

 pointment of a forestry expert to the Superintendent's staff. Had a 

 forester been attached to the Park before this, we should probably 

 not now be bewailing the loss of thousands of fine lodgepole pines 

 through the ravages of insects. Nor would the Mariposa Grove of 

 big trees,, the most precious possession of the entire park, have been 

 permitted to develop into an impassable wilderness, dense with thickets 

 in which the seeds of the big trees choke and die. Fortunately, this 

 place, too, has recently been taken in hand by Major Littebrant and 

 has already in part been cleared out. But this, too, is forester's work 

 and should have the supervision of a scientific forester. 



And then there are knotty problems related with the large tracts 

 of timber within the park that are owned by lumbermen. These tracts 

 are likely to be slashed and burnt and ruined forever, unless they soon 

 be exchanged, as has been proposed, for other tracts of equal economic 

 but of relatively slight esthetic value. Matters of this sort clearly 

 require the presence of a forester who shall give them the benefit 

 of his special training. 



Let us hope, therefore, that this tree planting episode we have just 

 had in the Yosemite Valley may be productive of something besides a 

 few handsome trees ; that it may prove to be the first step toward the 

 establishment of a definite system of forest care and improvement 

 such as the situation logically calls for, and such as might well have 

 formed part of the administrative routine of the Yosemite National 

 Park from the first. 



Very truly yours, 



F. E. Matthes. 



