Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-09-30
CONSERVATION.

An army engineer once remarked
that the western forest fires were I'LL
ing the Missouri with dissolved Rocky
mountains, and that unless the erosion
could he stopped, boats will hardly
ind room to enter the Mississippi.
Amos A Mills. who Is working in
the interest of the reclamation service,
explains this remark by showing that
the soil on ten thousand of the burn
ed heights is now rapidly diminish
ing, and Is being carried into the sea.
In an article In Country Life in
America" Mr.. Mills shows just what
happens on the watershed whore the
St Vrain makes It's start for the sea
The river drains two watersheds, one
OF which ls still covered by a forest
the other swept to barrencss by a
forest FIRE An hour after rain the
branch from the burned area had al
eady risen to many times It's normal
volume and the dark water was thick
with sediment. The branch from the
forested area was only a trfle higher
than normal and practically clear and
uncolored. II was evident that the rain
was being absorbed by the forest and
that II was being shed by the burned
area
In IN the forest the two inches OF
rain that had fallen had soaked to an
average depth Of eight inches into tho
thick carpet OF litter under the great
Englemann spruces almost two CEN
turtles old.
And at this place II seemed as n
in the writer's words, the forest were
saying
"As long as | stand, my countless
roots shall clutch and clasp the soil
like eagles claws and hold It on
these slopes l shall add TO this soil
by annually creating more. | shall
heave It with my growing roots, loosen
ana cover II with litter rugs, ana
maintain, a porous, sieVclikc surface
that will catch the rain and so delay
and distrib butte these waters that at tho
foot Of my slope perennial springs
will ever flow quietly toward the sea,
Destroy me. and on stormy days the
waters may wash away the unanchor-
ed soil as they run unresisted down
the slopes, 10 form a black. destructive
flood in the home-dotted valley be-
low"
But all over the barren slopes Of the
burned area. where the fire-killed
trees stood like so many skeletons,
he upper. gentle slopes we're covered
~ "a filmy sheet OF clear water which
'erartated into tattered torrents and
COX on color" These united and grew
size. each separated from the Others
~ ridges that widened and guliies
that deepened Most OF the eroded ma
terial was carried on,
Miniature landsudes were frequent
here gullcYs were washed I'm the soil.
and torrent of water laden with
mud was sweeping down every hillside.
and on by various channels into the
Missouri. Therefore. as Mr. Mills oh
serves. as one comes up the Mlssis-
sippi and notes it's Instructions ~
sediment and mud dumps and deposits
OF soil. he may truly say. Here lies
the iineal descendant of Pixies peak;
here the greater part OF an Onto
hin" or, "A food took this from
terraced cotton field, and this from
a farm in sunny Tennessee" A mud
fiat itself might remark THE
thoughtless lumbcrman who caused
my downfall Is now In Congress urg-
ing river Improvement" and the shall
low water at the big bend could add.
our once deep channel was nled
with soil from a fire-scourged noun
tain The minister whose vacation
fire caused this ruin Is now mill
tant missionary among the heather of
Cherry Blossom land"
The ruin of vast areas of hin land
from this cause IL already a fact in
many OF the Southern states. where
the loss great as n is is not as
noticeable because Of the abundant
vegetation OF many of the valleys
But i'm the Rocky mountain region. il
Is the mountains alone that are forest
covered Shall desolauon come upon
tho West also? or Will practical con-
sevation not nnd some way OF saw
Ing what little remains of the noun
tain forests, and also restore tn
utility and beauty what has already
been lost?