Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-03-05
ANSWER TO MR. FENN.
Conditions The Inhabitants of
The Forest Reserve Sees Them.-The Major Does
Considerable Beating Around the Bush"

basin is tamarac and we believe we are
we'll within the truth when we say it
will not average a hundred thousand
feet to the square milea This Ejack
pine" is slowly supplanting the lodge
pole pine and will itself-the forestry
sharps tell US be supplanted in about
two hundred years by better grade of
timber, perhaps. Now that this would
take place without the supervision of a
crew of forest officials we believe it is
fair to assume. =
The foregoing information would not
be needed by Mr.. Fem, had he paid
more attention to his duties as for
ester and less to the duties of a spell
binder.
But to resume the thread of Mr.,
Fenn's narrative. After discursive
journey to the Black Hills in which we
are informed of the strenuous ,opposi-
ton at first and final conversion to the
company, by what means we are left in
ignorance, though it is fair to- suppose
the happy result was brought about by
the eloauence of the eriotendent of
the reserve, - ,1~,'y
We'll, we accompany Mr.. Fem back
to Idaho, still discursively, where he
has the hardihood to voice the follow
ing: GAS respects the present petition
have not seen it nor have l been in
! that part of the reserve since it was
circulated but 1 am confident a canvass
of the conservative, deeply, financially,
interested miners of the country in
volved, the men who look to the future
as we'll as to the present in managing
their business enterprise, will show
them almost unanimously in favor of
protecting and preserving the. forests
as proposed in the forest reserve sys-
tenn This paper will state to its GER
tain knowledge that in the Elk City
district there is only one man in favor
of the reserve system in the abstract,
aside from the rangers, and not one of
any class or distinction in favor of Mr..
4 Fenn's conception of a forest reserve.
i If Mr.. Fem will come in we will take
great pleasure in proving it to him, al
, though he needs no such proof, his
rangers must keep him informed in the
! matter.
/ Gas respects the difference between
| quartz and placer mining as respects
: the forest reserve policy the latter is
: the more deeply affected" says Mr.
: Fem, and proceeds in his usual luciC
: style to disprove it. He asserts thai
: the placer miner, as a species, is
threatened with extinction, or his water
= supply is, by the wood chopping mani;
5 which has developed among the quarts
} miners since Mr.. Fenn's advent upol
4 the scene. This mania was never call
t ed to our attention before. No, sir
r the placer miner will continue to guag'
t the future supply of water for the sea
v son by the extent of the rainy seasol
i in the fall and spring, as well as tn
t snowfall, nor is there solitary in
S stance in the Elk City basin wherein
: the timber has been stripped from tn
= the source of a single tributary, the
e are well wooded by the same scrub pin
r which obtains generally in the basin
:, which fact, we think, should dispose o
a the majors assertion that the waite
y supply of Elk City has diminished fror
" the causes assigned by him. AS
;, further instance of Mr.. Fenn's fault
= reasoning from effect back to cause
1t we will cite the fact that Anderson
e Butte, which forms the northeast ril
G of the basin is as bald Of timber as tn
majors interview" is of facts, br
Is which, nevertheless, is anxiously watcl
i'd ed by the placer miners, whose sourc
n of water supply is there, for while tn
" snow lies upon this butte their watt
er continues, and the snow lies thel
lie longer by six weeks or two month
Is than it does in the heavier timbere
ed sections thereabouts. We offer no e,
IS nlanation for this natural refutation
T. MANY of Mr.. Fenn's fine spun theorie
T. but it is there for all to see who a
is not wilfully blind. The same condition
tx obtain in Buffalo Hump camp, the sno
w disappears in the timber long before
It does in the open. We are, howeve
ct gratified to be able to go with the ge
DIS tleman a short distance in one of /
is conclusions, the one wherein he
o presses the belief that the prese