The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-07-10
DEFORESTATlON AND THE
+, ANNUAL FLOOD LOSS

storage reScTNOlTS at tle ueauWatV
the principal rivers, where the sur
from thaws and spring rains can be
and sent down the rivers later, 0r,M y
the West, diverted to the irrigatiA
projects. They ask for the building ~
levees and cut-cifs on flood plains as a
temporary measure, but above all theyN
are asking for a preservation of the
forests on mountain and hill, and
careful reforesting of all denuded
slopes.
The total area of the watershed of
the Mississippi is 1,259,000 squarej
miles, and during great floods it disy
charges 100000 cubic feet of water \
every second. 1t carries an alluvial
deposit that has formed new land FROM.
forty feet deep at Omaha to 300 feet
deep below New Orleans, covering S0,- I
600 square miles, surface the size. of
the state of Montana, with an average N
of 40 feet of alluvial soil, and usiItg II
material stolen, unchallenged, from hills n
and farm lands. The yearly decrease OF |
the habitable part of the whole eartM
is reckoned at $500 square miles. 1t NJ
goes to the seas in the form of silt and N
much of it can be charged to mati IS /
carelessness.
| Floods come from early spring railns
I falling on frozen ground, from the
! forming of sudden ice gorges in streamS,
! from unusual local rainfalls, from landA.
slides, and like phenomena, but tha
usual ones come from the lack of meansN
for holding the early spring waters on II
the mountain sides. The floods of the
Missouri and Mississippi usually last
longest, sometimes from January to
July, because of the slow advance of
/ the sun over the widely diversified \
headwaters. Those of the Ohio, ''the \
most terrible on the earth s surface
are usually precipitated suddenly BY
the releasing of all the SHOWS at once
in the headwaters which lie parallel
TO the equator. The water releasedA
forms volume 100 feet high, 600 feet N
wide and 800 feet long, to be hurled
suddenly at civilization. -
Last spring the loss caused by the
Ohio floods aggregated over $1O0,00of
900, about one.fifth of the sum thai
Congress would have to appropriate 7
purchase the whole Appalachian 81
of river headwaters, and est&
enough reservoirs to hold the a
surplus, and protect billions of al
worth of property indefnitelya2
Geological Survey shows that the
of 1850 square miles, or thirty-A l.
per cent. of the drainage area of Is
Monongahela can be stored, and re
leased in dry weather to increase til
depth of the channel six feet, and ind
cidentally protect Pittsburg. ForestaNA
ton there and on other watersheds oNM
the East, would cause a storage of from,
four to six inches more water annually
ly. minimum of 100000 horse pow
er, is developed in these headwaters ev.
cry year, and according to the Geolog.
ical Survey, fifty per cent. or more Isl
available for economic uses and would
bring a rental of $2S,000,0O0. BY stor-
ing the spring floods and releasing theh
; for deepening the water in the river,
enormous sums for dredging and init
proving river beds would be saved The
government has spent $30,O00,O0O INIT
!, proving the rivers of the Appalachian
system and is spending $56000,0 900
j more, expecting to increase the $4,000.
900 tons of freight shipped annually
over water routes to a much greater
amount.
; Floods bear direct relation to bust.
ness depression, and the relation to hu,
man suffering, property loss and spread
of disease is vital. During the 1907
| spring flood, 100000 working people IN
| Pittsburg were rendered idle for an
average period of a week, and many
were homeless. The floods of 1S47A
, 1852 and 1888 were followed down then
Mississippi Valley by cholera and other
epidemics. In the spring of 1908, !
100000 acres of land were laid waste
in the West and $40,000,000 WORTHY Of
property destroyed. In 1901 and aAain
in 1902, the southern Appalachian diA
trlct lost $lO,000,000. In 1888, the loss :
J to Cincinnati alone was $l,500,OOO and
the Mississippi Valley suffered to the
extent of $50,000,000. The flood OF
, 1897 cost the valley $4,000, 900, while
} the flood in the Monongahela Valley
J cost Western Pennsylvania 81 ,00O, 900.
The lesson of the Old World is be.
!, fore us. Southern Europe and Asia are
as skeletons of former selves, for each !
, nation in turn has given its forests to
misguided civilizers. Northern Africa,
once having climate of our <Gnifs
} States, is now ninety-fve per cent. \
sterile. Greece is becoming more har-
; rem, Sicily is us-infested, FraAce
| had been damaged to the extent of tn,
told millions before she undertook yto
atforest her hills. The Rhone. the 10,
the Adige, the Ebro, the Guadalquivet
and the Martha, localities where fioodt
were almost unknown in the world'$
dim dawn, now annually threaten ton
depopulate their valleys. Storage re-
servoirs have recently been tried by
j various European countries to conserve
J the flood waters, but all, with the Unit
) ed States, will eventually be driven to
} the plan of Mehmet Ali of Abyssina
who set out 15,OOO,oOO trees on his bar.
, rem hills over half century ago to
! hold the floods and redeem his country.
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