12 



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 in many parts. While 

 in view of the needs of local supply for mining operations, especially in 

 mines yielding low-grade ores, which can 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 region^. 



The climate, as will be seen from the paper of Mr. Parsons included in 

 this report, is, in many psLTts 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 hind- 

 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 rule, 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, I 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. 



^ot 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- 



