Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-05-19

a memorial came to the department
, of the interior from almost the tota
; of the citizenship of the Teton Basi
country in Northeastern Idaho II
which it was set forth that wherea
they had been in former years in tn
habit of havesting three crops of al
falfa during the season, the diminu
ton OF their water supply through
the destruction of the timber an,
shrubbery on the slopes about tn,
iieadwaters of the streams on whicl
they depended on irrigation, through
timber cutting. forest fires and ex
cessive grazing, had been so grea
that their irrigation facilities hat
/ been greatly impaired and that the,
had been for two years getting onl,
one full crop in season and were
without water to make another one
or even to make after-feed for theil
stock throughout the fall. Tho
streams that supplied the water fol-
their irrigation had been at flood ans
wrought devastation when the SNOW
went off with an unnatural rush and
when tho time came that -he water
was needed to make tile crops it had
gone and that forever. The fores,
service then found itself in the~very
inception of its work confronted with
the work of devising some plan to
save not the forests alone for the
timber they might be expected to
yield but to save the forests, the
shrnbbery not valuable as timber. the
vegetation there, that the springs.
brooks, creeks, rives, might live and
yield their waters to bless not the
few but the whole people.
Remnant is Forest SERVICES Heritage.
Few and comparatively rugged
roads had been made to accessible
points in the forests to enable the
timber cutters to get some of the
finer timber which they had done,
without awaiting permits to do so in
many cases, to enable the cattle and
sheep men TO take in and di stribute
over this, the finest summer pasture
on earth, their thousands of cattle
and horses, their myriad flocks of
sheep, the prospectors and miners to
pursue their Investigations and carry
on their work. The timber cutters
were cutting tho finer portions and
wasting the inferior and less valu-
able portions and too often burning
over the lands ravaged and as much
more as the fires wantonly or care
ilessly kindled would run over, des-
strcying not only the living but
booming to waste and desolation for
perhaps a century the lands burned
over y reputable citizen, resi-
dent on the western slope of the
Rocky mountains stated to me that i'll
his deliberate Judgment after con-
sidering the matter for years lie.
must conclude that fifty times rs
much timber was destroyed by fire
every year as was taken for legiti-
rate uses. Reduce his estimate to
half or even to one-fifth and the re-
suit must be considered appalling for
it means not only the total loss of the
timber of mature age'and commercial
size totally destroyed but every seed
ling, every bush, and all too often
the soil on the burned over areas
was as completely destroyed Con-
tributing to this calamitous result the
stockmen, hunters, campers and the
forces of nature, joined in careless
or wanton contribution OF their quota
of innocent little camptires and / t
so innocent fires set wilfully to burn
over and improve the range 40
motter what the future effect. I've
seen many forest burning set by
the sheep men and cattle men to
Improve the pasture, some set by set
tiers to deaden the timber SO that
the few loads they would ultimately
have to haul out for home use would
be lighter to haul. Think of it a
moment; thousands of acres of TIM
her burned that Bill Jones or some of
his kin might have an easier time
loading and hauling the half dozen
loads of poles, his need for his years
supply of fuel or building logs. Think
of the stockmen using your pasture
and mine tice of charge. burning us
out of house and home to improve
the grass. Yet these are, were typi-
cal cases and of such cases there
We're thousands but the offenders
were generally too cute to be caught
IN the act. This then had come to
be the heritage of the forest esrvice,
a remnana of the forests of our
country to be saved and perpetuated |
Il possible without depriving the
people of its use in any and every |
easonable way, to restrain as far IS
possible abuses and waste, to re-
stock as far as possible the waste
places, to overcome as far as might !
be the opposition of powerful inter-
ests resenting every restraint, to adj
minister the law as enacted in the in
terest of the American people, in the |
intrest of all humanity not for today
alone but for all time. 1t no doubt
appears to you tremendous under
taking and it was but it was possible,
thoroughly practicable,
is possible, is practicable and given
then men and the money it will be
lone, all that and more for the time
is coming when every part of every
tree cut will be utilized down to the
very leaves, when tree will be
planted for every one that is neces-
sarily cut or destroyed and not only
planted but amde to grow. / had
faith to believe that fully in the day
of our small beginnings and my faith
is many times stronger today.
Service Is Handicapped.
81 do not know, never knew, how
many of my associates in the earlier
phases of the forestry work believed
with me in the supreme Importance
of the work, never asked them.
We worked together handicapped by
inadequate laws and the lack of
money, but we made some advance
ment nevertheless. We came down
strongly on wasteful methods of
timber cutting and in face of howl
that resounded from shore to shore
we gradually fixed and enforced a
limit on tie amount of stock that
might be allowed in the forests, we
enforced decent methods of cutting
and clearing up the areas cut over
and reduced the cutting as far as
practicable to dead and fully matured
timebr and we met with a success
little less than remarkable in keep
ing out forest fires. We made men