The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-04-09
TO SAVE THE TREES.

Sentiment - pure sentiment--it is
true, inspired the first effort to insure
the preservation of forest reserves. Ma
poleon declared, in effect, that senti-
ment moves the world, and it is unjust
to discredit the forestry reform agita-
tion because OF it's sentimental origin.
The bare hint that the sylvan beauties
of the Yosemite, the Adirondacks and
the Alleghanies might disappear under
the destructive hand of vandalism and
become only memory was too startling
to pass UNDECIDED. And if those magnif-
icent forest domains can be set apart as
parks forever by the will of the people
other reservations equal in Importance,
if not equaNin picturesqueness, may
likewise be reserved.
Bills for the rescue of public forest
lands from spoliation and for the prop
er care of the reservations already set
apart have thus far failed in congress,
but the idea grows in favor the more it
is agitated, and it seems to be only a
question Of time, and very short time
at that, when law embodying the
main features of the McRae bill will be
enacted. The McRae measure, which
passed the house last June, is plan to
put the national forest reserves under
regulation management and make them
self supporting.
The necessity for state action, both
separately and in federation, is clearly
set forth in the report for 1895 of the
fire warden of Minnesota
The report closes with statement Of
the utility of the forests and argument
for their preservation:
The Minnesota forests are a great natural
reservoir Of moisture feeding hundreds of
streams, which fertilize the soil and turn the
machinery of manufactures. They afford an
important industry and home market for agri-
cultural supplies. The pine forests should also
be valuable as health resorts, for it has been
conclusively shown by scientific observations
that forest air is much richer in ozone than
the air of open countries. The celebrated
Swedish iron is produced by tcharcoal instead
of mineral coal, and it would seem that the
conversion of Minnesota ore into iron by char
coal should be encouraged by the state rather
than have it all shipped away in crude condi-
ton. This while creating a new industry,
ing the forests. No abatement of the seeming
ly ruthless consumption of pine can at present
be expected. for great companies have their
capital all embarked in the business and have
built railroads specially for numbering. They
cannot now stop without financial failure, and
If we are to have permanent forests 1t must be
the state or the United States that will con-
serve them.
A change of terms to suit the varied
30
ties blessed with rich forest lands would
make the Minnesota plea applicable to
nearly every state in the nation. In its
broader aspects the question is stated in
a recent number of Garden and Forest.
An editorial treating upon forest and
flood says:
1t is unpleasant to be constantly sounding
alarms and predicting calamities. No gift of
prophecy is needed to foretell the ruin which
will follow il the devastation Of the forests of
the Appalachian region from Quebec to Ala
bama goes on for the next 20 years as it has
done. And who can estimate the desolation
which will ensue if the floods are let loose from
the still loftier ranges which feed the Column
bia, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. or
who can imagine the extent of the inland sea
that will roll over the Mississippi valley when
the water barriers are removed from the east
ern slopes of the great continental divide and
the sources of that immense water system in
the central northp Common prudence ought
to arouse the legislatures of the various states
and of the nation to face this problem now,
which is of more vital Importance to the life of
the republic than any question Of tariff or Of
currency.
Many of the states are already aroused
to the crisis. Minnesota not only looks
to the preservation Of her vast forest
treasures, but she has among her statutes
a forestry act to encourage tree planting.
Her forests are under the control Of
forest commissioner, and the forest fire
law now in operation in that state is
said to be the most complete ever en-
acted.
New York established forestry COM
mission some years ago. So far its Ia
bors have been confined to the state
holdings in the Adirondack regions.
Less than q fourth of the $500, 900
acres constituting Adirondack park be-