The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1892-09-15
FOR A NATIONAL PARK.
The Devastation Of Timber Lands De-
mands Forest Preserves.
WOODMAN, SPARE THOSE TREES

WUUDMAN, NfARh THUSh TREES.
North Carolina Has Splendid Forests,
But they are Being RuthIessly Des-
trOyed-UnIess Steps are Soon TAX
en- to Preserve Them, They Will be
Only a Recollection of the Past.
From the New York Observer
The wholesale devastation of the
timber lands of the country empha-
sizes the Importance of establishing
and maintaining permanent forest
preserves, and of more economical
disposal of that part of the public
forest domain which it may not be
necessary to reserve. Only recently
the Mt. Shasta tract of timber land,
containing $4,000 acres, of twenty
square miles, was sold to a lumber
company, and it's beautiful trees,
some of them three hundred feet high
and ten feet through the base, will,
of course, find their way to the saw
mills. The Mt. Shasta region has
been called the keystone of California
scenery, and its great forests can nev-
er be reproduced, but neither the
government nor the timber specula-
latOrS have any sentiment about trees
and the lands have, presumably gone
for mere song. But it is not alone
in the West that the spoil
alton of the forests is in progress;
the forest tracks on the Big Smoky
North Carolina and Eastern Tennes-
see, containing trees as beautiful
and valuable as those in California,
and of more varied kinds, are rapidly
disappearing under the wOOdman'S
axe. The changing attitudes of this
central region and its temperate eli
mate are favorable to the growth of
| splendid trees, and the greatest and
| most perfect oaks, ashes, hickorieS
and hemlocks to be found the country
over are to be seen on the slopes and
| in the valleys of the mountain
ranges. But the destruction goes on
| there as elsewhere: the more imme-
| diately marketable varieties of tim
Der have already been cut down in
many localities, and the forest which
a decade ago was practically unbrOk-
en-, is now detted with saw mills and
tanneries, and given over to the lum-
| bermen.
| A like process is being applied to
| the remoter valleys of the Smoky
range, and unless early measures are
| taken for the permanent reservation
| of designated areas, the total deStruc-
| tion of this interesting and extensive
forest tract is plainly inevitable. In
| the Adirondack region the spoliation
| of the woods has been going on COM
| paratively unchecked for years,
though, happily, the bill passed by
| the New York Legislature this year
providing that the state may conSoH-
| date its present holdings either by
| sale or purchase, promises to result in
| an extensive and permanent forest
preserve. The State now owns about
10000 acres in the Adirondacks, near
ly one-half of which consists of iso-
lated tracts on the edge of the forest,
but it is believed that these can be
| sold or exchanged for Others near to
the main body of state lands, and a
great preserve thus be created. The
Importance of such preserves to the
country at large can hardly be OvereS
timated, the proper irrigation of the
soil depending largely upon the reten'
tiOn by forests at the head waters OF
rivers and streams of the rainfall and
the melting snow. Such retention
secures an equable flow of water, anC
precludes inundations and droughts
and SO has direct inflence on agricul
ture, the navigability of rivers, and
consequently, on the growth of pOpu
lation and the prosperity of the ma
tion. Moreover, according to recent
bulletin of the Land Commissioner
the annual value of the wood materia
of all sorts consumed in the United
States is placed at ST. 900, 900, ,000thus eX
ceeding ten times the value of the gOlC
and silver output, three times tn,
annual product of all mineral and Goa
mines put together, and three time
the value of the wheat crop.
Such source of national wealth i
well worth conserving, and with th
lawless spoliatiOn now going on il
many quarters, gives force to the re
cOmmendation of the commissions
| for the immediate reservation of al
public forest lands with a view to tn
permanent reservation of certain
areas and the subsequent sale of tn
remainder under better conditions
The action of the Fifty-firSt Congress
T in authorizing the President to re
1 | serve by proclamation public fores
q lands in any State or territory ha
done much to remedy existing evil
1 | and to extend the forest preserve, bu
q the better plan is for the present t
Withdraw everything for permanen
reservation or reappraisement. Th
present Congress will do something
a | improve it's record for wise legislatio
: if, when it assemblies next winter,
, makes the preservation Of the publ
Z forest domain one of it's earliest care
! and takes measures for securing
: purchase blocks of the great forest {
n the Southern Alleghenies and th
Redwood forest of the Pacific coas
. for national reservation.