The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-27
SHOULD SAVE THE
Big FOREST TREES
SCIENTIFIC FORESTRY is ONE OF
THE NEEDS IN THIS COUNTRY.
NEGLECT OF CONGRESS IS
POINTED OUT.


From the New York Sun.
The Congress, under the direct stimu-
lus of President Roosevelt, has taken
comprehensive and expensive measures
for the increase of the forest area. Areas
measuring more square miles than many
a principality have been dedicated to the
growth of timber. Scientific forestry has
been brought into being In order to pre-
serve the streams which may water the
semi-arid regions no less than to provide
supply of timber which under well
regulated systems of cutting may main
tain the lumber industry, which, left to
itself and the dictates of selfishness, has
committed suicide with its own broad
axes For these purposes the expendi-
ture of many millions of dollars has been
authorized.
Congress, however, has neglected to
provide pittance for the preservation Of
such a monument of Gods own forestry
as mans puny care can never hope to
reproduce. This neglect has continued
so pointedly throughout the last five
years that 1t may almost be regarded as
neglect no longer, but positive refusal
1t is enough to cause the true lover of
forests to view with suspicion the gov
ernment's projects of forestry; millions
al
serve the trees which have been growing
to grandeur from the days when the ice
cap receded, the big trees of California
To the preservation of the two unpro-
tected groves of big trees the Presi-
dent is fully and heartily committed. In
January of last year he transmitted to
congress a petition signed by more than
q million and a half persons begging for
legislation to preserve these solitary living
monuments of the past. To the petition
Mr.. Roosevelt added the expression of his
own opinion and recommendation IN these
words: "The Calaveras Big Tree Grove
is not only a California but a national
inheritance, anG all that can be done by
the government to insure its preserva ton
should be DONE" Despite this endorse
ment, and with nearly year and half
to do something in. the result is that all
that can be done by the government has
been left undone.
Some small groves of sequoias are in
cuded in preserved areas. Others have
fallen before the saws of the loggers. The
two finest of all are in imminent dan
ger of destruction. The people of Cali
fornia the lovers of nature everywhere,
are awake to the danger. The President
sees it. Congress, ready to appropriate
millions for one aspect of forestry, stolid-
ly refuses to act for the preservation of
these trees.
ct THESE trees are SO AAidt
the English have, in erecting for them
the botanical genus Wellingtonia, thought
to do honor by giving to them the name
of one of their great military figures.
One of these groves, the Calaveras, con-
tans a hundred trees of large size; the
Stanislaus grove, some six miles Distant
contains 1890 sequoias and Is not only
the largest grove now in existence, but
also the largest of which any trace has
been discovered.
For more than forty years these two
groves were preserved from the loggers
by the enthusiasm of their owner James
L. Sperry. To keep land unproductive. as
this land has been, for more than a
generation to be at the charges of taxa
ton and other outlay is no light deed to
be done by private owner. 1t seems
none the lighter when it is remembered
that each of these trees measures at the
very least half a million feet, board
measure of sound and marketable tim
her. In 1900 the land passed from Mr.,
Sperry, and now the title is vested in
spectators, who, II the government does
not soon act. will make their holding
productive with ak and saw, and will
make 1t barren.