The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-04-26
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A 7ION7HNA FOREIT SLOWING Az. c5ZAGE0 ar zEEE
GROWTH

safely through this period of shortage,
and, when it is past and new forest
growth comes to maturity, to show us
the way, in a fashion we shall then
heed better than now, to policy of
ordinary business foresight.
Besides the timber, the 100000
acres of national forest hold the wa
tant irrigation project in the west
is forced to rely for success. bitches,
no matter how well dug, cannot sup
ply farm land with water unless they
have reservoirs on which to draw. Ar
tificial reservoirs, no matter how cost
ly or well planned, cannot themselves
store water unless the water is first
fed to them by the forested noun
tains and slopes from which, either
first or last, all disable water must
come. Whether forests bring more
rainfall we do not know nor need to
know. What we are sure of is the
control of the forest over the given
rainfall. If the forest goes, the wa
ter goes with it, so far as use is
concerned. Naked hills harbor no
springs; they gather and then dis
charge upon the valleys only the
worse than wasted floods which leave
ruin.
But there is a third natural re-
source over which the national forest
stands as custodian-the grazing
range, or rather that part of it called
the summer range" without which,
to round out the spring and winter
ranges on the lowlands, the millions
of sheep and cattle of the western
country would starve, with unspeak-
able loss, in single year. Only for
little over a single season has the
grazing on the national forest ranges
been restricted, under permit, to con-
serve for the live stock industry this
indispensable summer pasturage
Stock do not have to be excluded ex-
cept where it is necessary to give a
stretch of young forest the chance to
make a clean start. But overcrowd-
ing is checked, the different needs of
sheep men and cattle men, of small
owner and large owner, are carefully
studied and supplied, and no consid-
GRAFTON but the good growth of the
forest outweighs the claim of the
herds.
This new work of the government
is part and parcel of the broad plans
of the administration to conserve the
great natural resources which still re-
main in the nations keeping. 1t is
one answer to the public lands ques-
ton, which has been forced into prom
innce, and set off in fresh light, by
the great and rapid Industrial growth
of the country. When the presidents
plans for the public lands have been
fully carried out, every acre Of the
public domain will be brought to its
fullest value to the settler; the agri-
cultural lands will be places for
homes to be founded and families sup.
ported; the grazing ranges will con.
tinue increasingly to furnish forage
for sheep and cattle; tracts now des.
ert will have their fertility developed
by the waters of irrigation; and the
forests which safeguard all these in.
terests while supplying wood ON
which within so years the whole rc.
gion will be forced wholly to rely, will
be produced and harvested, so that
the desired development of the west
may go on, unchecked, in safety,
guaranteed against the losses which
follow the industrial adventuret and
the speculative boom.
CLIFFORD PlNCHOT. Forester.