The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-09-20
FUTURE OF TREELEss EAST.
A Word for White Mountain and Ap-
paIachian Reserves.

oAuoA AdIlOudl authority IMAM the
East, both north and south. The
problems of forestry are here in their
most acute form, says Youths Com
panlon. Here are dense populations,
with an enormous lumber market and
the demand for water to develop cleo
trio power, to supply the many needs
OF great and growing communities
and TO provide irrigation for increas-
lngly intensive agriculture. Through
all these needs of life the East reels
the loss OF the ancient forests, tor
the primeval forests are gone, and
careless and negligent management
has lett poor and insufficient growth
to take their places.
Ihere are in the East two great
areas OF mountain, forest and water
shed, the care and preservation OF
which for the nation is the problem OF
no one state, but Of the nation itself
There are the White Mountains OF
New Hampshire, dear to so many
thousands from all parts of the coun-
try, and the heart of the Southern
Appalachians, the forests of which
are the reservoirs for the head waters
of practically every important river
/ of the South.
Both are mountain regions, in which
the steep slopes, once denuded of tor
est, are subject to severe erosion, so
that the hills are deprived of the soil
in which forests might grow. They
thus become more and more barren
the Watercourses being the beds OF
great floods during the copious rain
falls to which both these regions are
especially subject, and dry at other
tines.
The effect of these foundations is
only beginning to be felt, and there
is still an opportunity to prevent the
worst results; but in the South foods
uue to the deforestation have already
proved enormously destructive, as in
1901 and 1902, when the damage was
estimated at about $11S,00O,G00
Not only do the fiooos cause imme-
date damage, amounting to millions
but the sand and debris swept down
by them cover the rich b0ttom-lands
and practically wipe out Of existence
hundreds of acres of the best cultl-
waited lands in the South
There are few lakes and ponds
among the Southern mountains 20 act
as retaining and storage reservoirs.
The rivers, which mean so much to
the great new South, have their sources
in springs UP among the hills pro-
tected by forest cover. The rains de-
scend upon the LEAKAGE OF the forest.
are disturbed gently, stored in the
soil which is itself built up and bound
together by the trees, and issue in
even flow along the courses of the
streams, gaining head as they so, un-
til they provide tremendous power in
all the southeastern states, and still
further down irrigate agriculture!
lands of the highest value.
When these forests are cut away,
the soil is disintegrated, the rains &C.
scepd upon it all with destructive VIC
ience, the watercourses are flooded
by destructive torrents, and ruin FOL-
lows instead Of benefceGce. ms
country at large which prospeTs with
its members, cannot afford this.
New Hampshire has seen f1ourishine
towns rise and decay with the depart
ure of the various wood working IN
dustries that gather round a go0o
lumber supply, and others now -four
ishing will go the same way Tie
White Mountains offer a difficult prob
lem, since numbering and private com
panies, looking for dividends, do not
care to take hold Of it.
Perhaps we cannot blame them.
Perhaps we should do as they do il
we were in their places That is Meth
er here nor there. The fact that is
Of moment to the people is that up
among those glorious hills forests are
being cut today that in all probability
can never be restored, because of the
destruction of the thin glacial soil
that will follow their removal No
power can save and hold and care
for these forests on the steep upper
slopes, preserving the present stands
and cutting only for moderats returns
except the national Government.