The San Francisco call., 1901-12-04

ture he already has such power in the case
of lands needed by the Departments of War
and the Navy.
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
II is water, not land, which measures produc-
ton; The western half of the United States
would sustain population greater than that
OF our whole country to-day If the waters that
now run to waste were saved and used for ir-
rigation. The forest and water problems are
perhaps the most vital internal questions of
the united states at the present time.
Certain Of the forest
------E reserves should also be
made preserves for the
r o " 1 o N wild forest creatures.
o N L d be All of the reserves
made to pro- should be better pro-
W1Id tected from fires. Many
creatures. of them need special
protection because of
N-------%t the great injury done
by livestock, above all
by sheep. The increase in deer elk and other
animals In the Yellowstone Park shows what
may be expected when other mountain forests
are properly protected by law and properly
guarded. Some Of these areas have been so de-
nuded OF surface vegetation by overgrazing
that the ground breeding birds, including
grouse and quail. and many mammals, includ-
ing deer, have been exterminated or driven
away. At the time the water-storing ca
pacity of the surface has been decreased or
rain and diminishing the flow of streams be-
tween rains.
In cases where natural conditions have been
restored for a few years vegetation has again
carpeted the ground. birds and deer are COM
ing back, and hundreds of persons especially
from the immediate neighborhood come each
summer to enjoy the privilege of camping.
Some at least of the forest reserves should
afford perpetual protection to the native fauna
and flora. safe havens of refuge to our rapfdly
diminishing wild animals of the larger kinds
and free camping grounds for the ever-increas-
ing numbers of men and women who have
learned to find rest. health and recreation in
the splendid forests and f1ower-cIad meadows
OF our mountains The forest reserves should
De set apart forever for the use and benefit
of our people as whole and not sacrificed to
the short-siRhted greed of few.
The forests are natural reservoirs Bv re-
straining the streams in flood and repIenishing
them in drought they make nossible the use of
waters otherwise wasted. They prevent the
soil from washing. and so protect the stora ge
reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest CON
serVation is therefore essential condition of
water conservation,
The forests alone cannot however fully reg
uiate ana conserve the waters of the arid re-
glon. Great storage works are necessary to
equalize the flow of streams and To save the
Hood waters. Their construction has been con-
ciusively shown to be an undertaking too vast
Tor private effort. Nor can IL he host accop,
plished by the individual States acting alone
Far-reaching interstate problems are involved .
and the resources of single States would often
De inadequate 1t is properly national func-
tlon. at least in some of it's features. 1t is as
right for the national Government to make the
streams and rivers of the arid region useful
by engineering works for water storage as to
make useful the rivers and the harbors of the
humid region by engineering works of another
knd Jhe storing of the floods in reservoirs at
the mead waters of our rivers is but an enlarge
ment OF our present policy of river control. un-
der which levees are built on the lower reaches
of the same streams
The Government should construct and ma in
tain these reservoirs as it does other public
works Where their purpose 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.