The record-union., 1899-07-03

though two summers had elapsed. not
sprig of vegetation has started 70
clothe for the third time the naked
rocky backbone OF our continent.
The Sierra Nevada has Jared even
worse. Around Lake Tahoe the TIM
bered areas have been entirely swept
off, with the exception of a few thou
sand acres around Tallac, and some at
the north end, reserved by the owners
for later use. The mountain sides
around the Hot Springs, and nearly all
of the moraines and flats around the
south and east sides of the lake, have
been denuded. These areas, bereft OF
timber, are now ready to be abandoned
| to the State large tracts being for sale
4 at so cents per acre. The railroads,
which were constructed to carry logs
| to the lake, have been torn up, AMI
| the region, shorn of its wealth and
! beauty, has been partly burned over
| to give few sprouts to hungry hordes
| Of sheep.
! On the forks of Carson River there
are several townships from which ev-
cry vestige of timber has been strip
ped, first for mine timbers and later
for wood. Then the area was burned
over to afford tender shoots for spring
/ pasturage. To-day it is only in rare
little patches that young conifers are
beginning to gain a foothold, and fires
destroy many of these plantations. On
/ the east fork in 1896, after heavy sum-
mer showers, the water sluiced off the
| ashes and soil to such an extent that
| tons of trout were killed After the
| torrent subsidized one could drive a four
horse wagon along the banks and load
| it with the dead trout. 1t is doubtful
| whether the stream can be restocked
| until the denuded slopes shall be af-
! forested.
It is only necessary to read the ac-
counts given in the daily press to part
| ly measure the destruction by forest
fires. The writer has personally traced
these through every mountain county
in the State. Even of that area which
has been sacredly set aside as the Yo-
semitic Reservation, the threat was
openly made by the marauding sheep
herders, who have devastated Spain and
| Portugal, that they would burn the
| Government out" referring to the cav
| airy sent up to prevent the Illegal de-
1 struction of the vegetation protecting
| the head waters of the MERGED and
Tuolumne. The overstocking of these
mountain pastures is what is doing the
greatest harm. The writer once asked
an intelligent stockman how many
sheep could be pastured on given area
| in the Sierras, and he gave, as his opin-
| ion, that 5000 sheep could be pastured
| thereon without injury-that is, With
out destroying all seed of forage plants
| and grasses. But, upon naming over
the owners and herds which he knew,
there were 10000 sheep accounted for
in the area
CA photograph is here introduced of
the drainage basin of the Moquelumne.
| 1t shows the path of so-called CLOUD
burst.') This was nothing more than a
heavy summer rain upon burned-over
district, concentrating rapidly in the
steep gulches, and finally securing
away timber, powders and earth. In
travelling thousands of miles in vari-
Gus ranges of mountains, on three con-
tinents, the writer has never seen the
| track of a cloudburst in a timbered
country-alwayS in the barren ranges
from which timber was either natural
ly absent or had been destroyed by
human agency. The reasons for this
curing in a well-timbered country is
absorbed, even when the fall amounts
to several inches in a short space of
time. In a barren region this absorp-
ton does not take place; the rain rap
| idly collects in gulches. and forms, in
some instances, a veritable wall of
water, soil, gravel and rocks, carrying
everything before it.
| SAcOnd-Tha 1avarc of Gold drx, DIV
and hot, moist air, can superimpose
themselves in treeless country in such
a manner that when condensation is
inaugurated it takes place with de-
structive violence. These conditions are
modified, or even entirely prevented, by
the effects of forests and vegetation;
| and hence these regions escape the
most violent downpours The rainfall
| in tropical regions is several times
greater than any occurring upon the
treeless regions subject to cloud
bursts, yet the destructive run-off from
| tropical forest areas does not occur, on
account of the dense forests and un-
dergrowth
The Coast Range in Lake County pre-
sents some of the worst of the early
| stages of denudation. The herding of
| sheep has been so close and continuous
| that the forage plants and grasses have
nearly disappeared. Over large areas it
| is now difficult, if not impossible, to
find single specimen of a once album
dant forage flora. Many acres of val
ley land are being washed away; the
beds of streams are widening by cut
ting away alluvial deposits of past
| ages and leaving bars of cobbles and
| gravel in their stead. These evidences
| of rapid deterioration are characters
tic of all the public and much of the
private land of the country. This is
the price which has been paid for the
reckless use of the wealth with which
| that county was endowed; and the lit
tie benefit gained has accrued in MANY
| instances, to herders or owners of sheep
who owned no part of the lands upon
which the damage is being inflicted.
| This county has been abused to such
an extent that it is doubtful whether
all the wealth which has been made
upon wool and mutton in the entire
State since 1S49 could restore this sin
gle county to it's pristine condition.
Nor is this state of affairs confined TO
Lake County-it extends throughout the
State. If unheeded for a generation
more, it will not be within the power
of the human race to stay the destruc-
tive forces which have thus been
turned loose, and to restore to our
mountains their reservoirs of wealth
and of water. Yet. under systematic
and intelligent control, these areas may