The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-03
WATER PROBLEM.
1t Depends Largely Upon Preserva-
ton of the Forests.

The wise administration of the forest
reserves will be not less helpful to the
interests which depend on water than
to those which depend on wood and
grass. The water supply itself depends
upon the forest. In the arid region it is
water, not land, which measures pro
duction. The western half of the Uni
ted States would sustain a population
greater than that of our whole country
today if the waters that now run to
waste were saved and used for irriga-
ton. The forest and water problems
are perhaps the most vital internal
questions of the United States.
Certain of the forest reserves should
also be made preserves for the wild for
est creatures. All of the reserves should
be better protected from fires. Many of
them need special protection because of
the great injury done by live stock,
above all by sheep. The increase in
deer, elk, and other animals in the yell
lowstone Park shows what may be ex-
pected when other mountain forests are
properly protected by law and properly
guarded. Some of these areas have
been so denuded of surface vegetation
by overgrazing that the ground breed
ing birds, including grouse and quail,
and many mammals, including deer
have been exterminated or driven away.
AT the same time the water-storing ca
pacity of the surface has been decreas-
ed or destroyed, thus promoting floods
in times of rain and diminishing the
flow of streams between rains.
In cases where natural conditions
have been restored for few years, veg
citation has again carpeted the ground,
birds and deer coming back, and
hundreds of persons, especially from
the immediate neighborhood, come each
summer to enjoy the privilege of camp
ing. Some at least of the forest re-
serves should afford perpetual protec-
ton to the native fauna and flora, safe
Ravens OF refuge to our rapidly dinin-
ishing wild animals of the larger kinds,
and free camping grounds for the ever
ir,o, rely, mn hnr. nf 1700 n
who have learned to find rest, health,
and recreation in the splendid forests
and fiower-clad meadows of our noun
tains. The forest reserves should be
of our people a whole and not sacri-
feed to the shortsighted greed of a
few
NATURAL RESERVOIRS.
The forests are natural reservoirs.
BY restraining the streams in food and
replenishing them in drought they make
possible the use of waters otherwise
wasted They prevent the. soil from
washing and SO protect the storage
reservoirs from filling up with silt.
Forest conservation is therefore es-
sential condition of water conserva-
ton.
The forest alone cannot, however, full
ly regulate and conserve the waters of
the arid region. Great storage works
are necessary to equalize the flow of
streams and to save the flood waters.
Their construction has been conclusive
ly shown to be an undertaking too vast
for private effort. Nor can it be best
accomplished by the individual states
acting alone. Far-reaching interstate
problems are involved: and the resour-
ces of single states would often be in
adequate. 1t is properly a national
function, at least in some of its fea-
lures. 1t is as right for the national
government to make the streams and
rivers of the arid region useful by en-
gineering works for water storage as
<--T h. t1<a- F@<11-c-
of the humid region by engineering
works of another kind. The storing of
the foods in reservoirs at the head
waters of our rivers is but an enlarge
ment of our present policy of river con-
troll under which levees are built on the
lower reaches of the same streams
The government should construct and
maintain these reservoirs as it does
other public works. Where their pur-
pose is to regulate the flow of streams,
the water should be turned freely into
the channels in the dry season to take
the same course under the same laws |
as the natural flow.