The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1902-09-26
WORK FOR BEAVERS
80 10 vTLIzE LIZ DAMs.

Colorado Game and Flsh Commissioner
Believes that Beaver Dams Can be
Made Valuable as Irrigation Rcser-
volrs-Estlmates that one Beaver
VIII 20 az Much Work as a Man.
Among the many waiting TO see T.. IT..
Newell, the chief Of the geological sur
vey, who Is expected here this week to
look over the Colorado field with a
view to the establishment Of national
irrigation works. Is Charles w. Harris,
Colorado game and fish commissioner,
says the Denver Republican Of July
10th. Mr.. Harris has q plan which he
believes viii spread the benefits OF
government aid Over the entire Rocky
mountain region.
III the government viii spend about
S1.OOO,OOO a year I'm the propagation
and distribution Of beavers. there will
be plenty Of water In every stream
that comes down through the mountain
valleys to the plains said Mr.. Harris
last night.
''The beaver Is an indefatigable dam
builder. With trees and stones and
mud he throws a barrier across n
stream, which VIII resist the floods Of
spring, and all through the summer
holds suspended several thousand gal
Ions Of water. This water is slowly
seeping out through the bottom Of the
stream, under the dam, keeping the
dow constant all through the summer.
All summer, too, the beaver is at work
making the dam thicker and higher
and stronger. Now, IL you have 1000
beavers at work In a stream, building
dams. the amount Of water which win
be stored altogether will be enormous.
And in the dry season, all this water
goes down the stream. A small trickle
may be coming down at the head Of a
chain Of beaver dams, or there may be
no water at all, but below the chain OF
ponds you viii find a strong how of
water.
years ago there were millions Of
beaver IN the mountains Of Colorado,
and no one ever complained of a short
age Of water then, but the value of
their pelts doomed them to destruction.
There is a sufficient number of the an
imals left to form the basis of a com.
pcehensive scheme for %replenishing the
supply. Let the government start
beaver farms, and let 1t provide also
III AAE HAWNNNAANA VI AAAE UNMNEN MlAAN
and the colonies along the streams, and
It need not be long before there are
beavers at work in every valley. Many
Of the mountain valleys, which were
INC q succession Of grassy meadows,
made by the beavers, are now dry
gorges, and the fertile soil, which
backed in behind the dan has all been
washed away again. To establish a
nnnn aMam - NLa 49, m.mwLMawTHmA
would require that the beavers be fed
until they had framed their own envir-
Onment, so to speak, and had the roots
Of rushes to fall back upon for a winter
diet. But II the beavers were propa-
gated on a beaver farm, they could
easily be trained to subsist on alfalfa
or potatoes. Human aid might also be
extended, to a degree, in the building
Of their dams, to assure their strength.
This done, the beaver would attend to
the rest.
II estimate that each beaver will do
Is much work In a year as a man
could do in building dams and storing
water. Now It would not cost more
than $3.50 a head to raise the beaver.
Their working life is about ten years,
So for $3.50 the government can dupli-
cate for ten years the work Of a man.
They can show no such result from
any other plan that has been suggest
ed, that I have heard Of"
Mr. Harris is having a large number
OF photographs taken of the beaver
colonies, which still remain ia the
state, showing how the water supply
is conserved, and he Is collecting also
the testimony of the men living along
the streams which were once always
flowing, but which have formed the
habit Of drying up since the beavers
were exterminated. He believes he can
make a convincing showing, and that
his plan, which on the face Of it may
look chimerical, will in the end appeal
strongly to the minds Of the govern
hent experts.