The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-04
)ENT ROOSEVELT'S 1ESSAGE DEA
THE DAY DELIVERED IN SEN

, alton and maintenance of the national
wealth is now more fully realized than
| ever before.
| Wise forest protection does not mean
| the withdrawal of forest resources,
whether Of wood water or grass. from
contributing their full share to the well
fare of the people, but, on the contrary,
| gives the assurance of larger and more
| certain supplies. The fundamental idea
of forestry is the perpetuation of forests
| by use. Forest protection is not an end
! OF itself; it is means to increase and
| sustain the resources of our country and
the industries which depend upon them.
| The preservation of our forests is an i'm
perative business necessity. We have
| come to see clearly that whatever de-
! stroys the forest except TO make way for
| agriculture threatens our well being.
The practical usefulness of the national
| forest reserves to the mining. grazing, ir-
| rigation and other interests of the regions
| in which the reserves lie has led to
! widespread demand by the people of the
/ west for their protection and extension.
i The forest reserves will inevitably be of
| still greater use in the future than in the
! past Additions should be made to them
| whenever practicable, and their useful
ness should be increased by thoroughly
| businesslike management.
At present the protection of the forest
: the mapping and description of their tim
| Der with the United States geological sur
! vey and the preparation of plans for their
| conservative use with the burteau of for
| estry which is also charged with the gem
! eral advancement of practical forestry in
! the United States. These various func-
| tons should be united in the bureau of
! forestry. to which they properly belong.
| The present diffusion of responsibility is
bad from every standpoint 1t prevents
! that effective cooperation between the
! government and the men who utilize the
| resources of the reserves without which
| the interests of both must suffer. The
| scientific bureaus generally should be put
! under the department of agriculture. The
! president should have by law the power
! of transferring lands for use as forest re-
| serves to the department of agriculture.
| He already has such power in the case of
| lands needed by the departments of war
/ and the navy.
! Irrigation.
| The wise administration of the forest
| reserves will be not less helpful to the in
terests 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 production. The
western half Of the United 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 irrigation The forest and water
problems are perhaps the most vital in
ternal questions of the United States.
Certain of the forest reserves should
also be made preserves for the wild forest
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
Ill s#-R.n 1-1~
shows what may be expected when other
mountain forests are properly protected
by law and properly guarded Some of
these areas have been so denuded of sur
face vegetation by overgrazing that the
ground breeding birds, including grouse
and quail. and many mammals, including
deer, have been exterminated or driven
away. At the same time the water stor-
ing capacity of the surface has been de-
creased or destroyed, thus promoting
floods in times eff rain and diminishing the
flow of streams between rains.
In cases where natural conditions have
been restored for a few years vegetation
has again carpeted the ground, birds and
deer are coming back, and hundreds of
persons especially from the immediate
neighborhood, come each summer to en-
joy the privilege Of camping. Some at
least of the forest reserves should afford
perpetual protection to the native fauna
and fora, safe Ravens of refuge to our
rapidly diminishing wild animals of the
larger kinds and free camping grounds for
the ever increasing numbers of men and
women who have learned to find rest.
health and. recreation in the splendid for
ests and flower clad meadows of our
mountains. The forest reserves should be
set apart forever for the use and benefit
of our people as whole and not sacrificed
to the shortsighted greed of a few.
The forests are natural reservoirs. BY
restraining the streams in food and re-
plenishing them in drought they make
possible the use of waters otherwise
wasted. They prevent the soil from wash
ing and so protect the storage reservoirs
from filing up with silt. Forest censerva-
ton is therefore an essential condition of
water conservation.
Storage Works Necessary.
The forests alone cannot, however, fully
regulate and conserve the waters of the
arid region. Great storage works are nee
essary to equalize the flow of streams and
to save the flood waters Their construc-
ton has been conclusively shown to be an
undertaking too vast for private eftort'
Nor can it be best accomplished by the In
5ividual states acting alone. Farreachlng
interstate problems are involved, and the
resources of single states would OFTEN be
inadequate. 1t is properly a nauonal
function, at least in some of its 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 harbors of the humid region by
engineering works of another kind. The
storing of the floods in reservoirs at the
headwaters of our rivers is but an en-
Iargement of our present policy of river
control 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 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 natural7fio
The reclamation Of the unsettled arid
public lands presents different problem.
Here it is not enough to regulate the flow
of streams. The object of the government
IS to dispose of the land 70 settlers who
will build homes upon it To accomplish
this object water must be brought within
their reach.
The pioneer settlers on the arid public
domain chose their homes along streams
from which they could themselves divert
the water to reclaim their holdings. Such
opportunities are practically gone. There
remain, however, vast areas of public
land which can be made available for
homestead settlement, but only by reser-
voirs and main line canals impracticable
for private enterprise. These irrigation
works should be built by the national
government. The lands reclaimed by
them should be reserved by the govern
ment for actual settlers, and the cost of
construction should so far possible
be repaid by. the land reclaimed The
distribution of the water. the division of
the streams among irrigators, should be