Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1899-10-25
SHEEP GRAZING IN ARIZONA
Paper on the Statement That Forest
Reserves Are Injured Thereby.

The following paper from the pen of
E. S. Gosney of Flagstaff appears in
the current issue of the Forester 1t
presents one side of a question that
is of vital interest to Arizona and is
therefore reproduced. Mr. Gosney
says:
! There have been in the past many
! statements of a general nature, some of
/ them coming from apparently high au-
| thority, that were based upon facts and
I conditions found in limited localities
i Such statements are extremely unfor-
! tunate, not only because they are I'M
just to local interests, but that they
break the confidence of the settler of
! these localities in the department of
| forestry and bring into ridicule the
whole plan of forest reservation among
: the settlers, on whom. in Arizona, at
least, the preservation of the young
! forest most depends.
| In the July Forester appeared an ar
ticle on Natural Reforestation in the
| Southwest" in which the author dis
| cussed sheep grazing in the forest re-
serves of central Arizona" from the
standpoint, evidently, of facts and con-
ditions found in California, and falls
into the grievous errors above referred
I to. l do not wish to criticise the au
thor, who, we feel. was the victim of
misplaced confidence, with, possibly,
! too much theory on the science of for
estry, but justice to the high aims of
the department of forestry, as we'll as
to local interests, demands that the
facts be known and that these errors
be corrected before injustice be done.
1 quote from the article referred to:
THE topography of southern Cali
fornia and Arizona is such that at
best, much of the rainfall flows off in
immediate foods etc. After the state
ment in most positive terms of the ne
cessity of excluding sheep from the for
ests of both California and Arizona, the
writer adds, in justification of his po-
sition
LAS a specific instance in illustration
of the destructive effect of grazing, the
forest reserve in central Arizona may
be cited. Many of the streams which
flow into the Salt river have their
sources in these reservations. When
ever sheep have been driven there in
large numbers, the farmers of the Salt
River valley have suffered material in
jury from the canals and laterals fill
ing with sand and silt" Then follows
a parag graph on the same subject which
is probably quite practical and true for
the precipitous mountains of southern
California but, if intended to apply TO
the forest reserves of central Arizona,
it is worthy the pen of a Cervantes.
There are three forest reserves in
Arizona: the BLACK Mesa" the Grand
Canyon and the San Francisco
Mountain forest reserve. The former
lies on the east border of the territory.
The writer is personally familiar with
very little of it, but understands the
nd Sin
liar to those of the other two reserves.
AS the waters of the Grand Canyon
reserve all flow, when they flow at all,
into the Colorado river, that reserve
could not be referred to or affect this
question. In fact only a small per
cent of the ether two reserves lie on
the southern slope. After a residence
of eleven years at the foot of the San
Francisco mountains and constant ia
miliarity with all parts of the latter re-
serve, and with the grazing of both cat