Gunnison news-champion., 1909-07-16

Ioae - ~ eoSeoRoke uAo1f " toSWssr
auditor of sssse, md V bss~d On Pses-
ens nsrket sslUe Of that water If
sosrud cd used but 0ssce. 1t 70 equal
= ~ sssesssd vsiustion II Colora<to.
Il nay b. worth billi0n tnasOrrow,
Fer six weeks tAe GunnisOn and
Grsad have beea boiling torrents. the
Grand twelve feet deep eu<ts.r the Glen
waad bridge and going twelve miles m
kssur, the GunnisSn swifter. bot ROt
quite such breast Of current. a dozen
rivers carry A<ssis, at once menace
and . waste.
How shall we prevent this waste
by what msth<sis shall these hosd
vaterx b. held back conserved. II you
Gill, until summer months when grow
ing croys upon ten mill,On acres will
respoad 70 their hfe bringing cOolnrss?
TIE answer 10 being found in m evo-
lusson Of irriGstisn sssess peculiar ~ the
~r,d states. Ne other world reGs0a ha~
siniiar sssl, clSMste and toeagrsphscsl
cosditieas. 1t 10 = mighty evolution
frsa sAe rsde furrew ~ the haghiy de-
velsp~d CscAe ls POsdre irrigation sys-
teM, but ne greater than thst noe
tsfOre W u Hccssnplish the ideal by
which every dssp Of snow Or rain thst
falls upon the bills shall be made to
v,erforn its service before escaping
frea the stste. The reservoir methsd
of osassrvsti0n appeals 10 everyone
sad u fest bscOminG perfected. But
these u Q hait - reafrvOlr sites where
eost u coastructisa does not rise above
rrturns. When every available reser
vOiF u buik there will yet remain, par
ticulsriy uFOn the Western Slope, billions
Of cubic feet Of heed water running to
che sees to be lost forever.
Mr.. PinchOt and his followers have
proposed that we plant trees upon these
rocky slopes To eQualize the flow. The
ecooosnic problem is No plain, the need
NJ distinctly felt and the proposal made
with such deb0nair confidence that
many sccept the claim at face value,
regardless of the certainty that pro
posed planting ePoc our steeps Is Nd
mittedIy On unsOlved problem, that it
would take from - = $50 years to
grow the trees and that their utility for
the purpose is extremely doubtful.
say doubtful. for floods of former
decades before fire or woodman's AK
had touched our virgin forests, were
more severe than today. We have
heard much about destruction of our
timber causing early melting of snow.
This season snow is lasting much later
in the high mountaiis than any time on
record, and with all the immense fall
our floods have not equaled those OF
1854. As matter of fact there never
has been any real scientific data secured
of Rocky Mountain conditions upon
which to base even a theory, much less
a Pinchot propaganda of withdrawing
from settlement IN Colorado sixteen
tracts of land, each as large as Rhode
Island, in order to conserve the water
\ raa,f
of Col. n. M. Chittenden of the u. 5.
Engineering Corps, in which from
twenty years practical experience in
the Rockies he shows conclusively that
floods are not controlled by forests, the
editor of that high class scientific jour
nal, Engineering News of New ork,
states. Theory is not needed to settle
this point; nor do we even need To 90
back and study the record which ne
qoutes of eight centuries Of Hoods on
the Danube river Ii is perfectly well
known shat great floods occurred IN the
rivers of New England, the Middle
States and the South when the entire
drainage area about their sources was
covered with primeval forests. We
could not in centuries, by the utmost
endeavor which the most enthusiastic
forestry advocates suppose possible. re
store such forests as then existed, and
even if we could, floods would still oc-
eur as they occurred then.
Ii is fact that the floods from which
Colorado has suffered for six weeks past
come in large part from out of the
timber. Held back till late May and
June and contracting into themselves
with hardly wetting of the ground.
these forest SHOWS then melt all al
once, as intense sunlight heats the
trees and warm air pervades them
Summer flow comes mainly from above
timber hne. from the slides and drifts.
for after July lst there is, generally
speaking. no snow whatever, left in the
timber.
But without further arguing the ex-
tent of stream equalization which trees
might accomplish if planted over six
teen million acres, if they grew and
after POO years became of good size, IT
is not probable that any considerable
regulation would result.
Now there is a method of automatic
stream regulation of highest possible
utility which practical irrigation in the
Gunnison country is evolving. This is
the idea of pouring flood waters into
mountain meadows. 1t is striking
fact that as ranches have pushed up the
valleys to 5000 and g. 800 feet elevation
where copious irrigation is done in May
and June, that lower portions of these
valleys show decided increase in sum
mer stream flow. More than this. living
streams are being developed in What
were formerly dry gulches. Pioneer
settlers with one accord declare this
true.
The reason is illustrated by expert
ence of W. c. Howard, Cebolla rivel
ranchman, who lives at an elevation oi
800 feet His place is entirely on one
side of the creek and mile hong. Aftel
bitches are turned off in late July, as j.
invariably the case with mountain ha,
fields, he reports . large stream howinl
of the Iower end into the waste ditca