Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-07-21

consideration of the future, the
periods during which the streams give
their present supply OF water will be
greatly shortened by floods and
droughts," and it was soon after rec.
commended that forest reservations
should receive protection, either by
guards furnished from the army or an
appropriation should be made to pay
custodians and watchmen, so that not
only might depredatiOns be detected.
! but fires, that consume so great d
part of our timber, might be prevent
ed" (Reports of secretary of the in
terror, 1S90-lS9l.)
The night of March 3, 1891. when
the act was approved, is remembered
we'll. 1t was at the capitol, when the
president had to be there present to
approve acts OF congress before the
end of the session, already expiring.
He paused at this act, and, inquiring
! If it was as it should be, and being ad-
vised it was, because the authority to
make reservations was thereby given,
he said, Then | will sign; and sign
4; he did; and what of the forests were
left on the public domain 1t became
possible to wrest from the greed of
spectators and keep for the use Of
the nation, then and thereafter. By
, this act the policy was inaugurated,
in pursuit of which President Cleve-
land. President Mckinley and Presi-
dent Roosevelt, with their able secre-
taries and officers, have added to the
reservations made from 1891 to 1893,
those others which now are holding
this national life-saving asset as one
of the richest and most vital the peO-
pie possess.
This policy thus avowed, congress
did not at once support by sufficient
appropriations, and resort had to be
taken to the army for greater pro-
lection to certain reservations.
There were also at this same period
reserved many portions of the public
domain amid the mountains and their
foothills, suitable for dams and the
creation of reservoirs of water to be
used in irrigation of arid lands, and
the maintenance of our rivers in time
Of need. The prompt action taken by
the administration to realize for the
people the benefits Of the act of Octo-
Der 2, 1888, led to the act of August
1890, providing that reservoir sites al
ready or thereafter located or selected
(by the United States) on public lands
should from the date of such location
be reserved from entry or settlement
Through the activity of the geological
survey (Maj. Powell, superintendent,
VERY many reservoir sites were estab-
lished, and reservations ordered
which have since been available for
the conservation of our rivers and
useful for irrigation.
1t would seem that this policy came
into sudden existence from legislative
acts proposed without provision for
any reservations, unless private Ell
tries might be also made, and thereby
immediate executive action was de-
manded to control the situation. Yet
that policy at once received and has
since constantly had the support of
public opinion and of each successive
administration with increasing vigor,
until there are now nearly 00,000,0O
acres in the forest reservations; and
hundreds of reservoir sites are held
by the government free from private
entry. Forest associations, waterway
conventions and lumbermen them
selves give earnest support to these
most patriotic and vital measures.
But there has not been brought into
view the great Importance of our res.
ervoir sites. not only for irrigation
use, but the supply of water to our
, rivers for navigation in times of
drought. The lakes can not be drawn
on without limit, and they could sup
ply only the lower reaches of our
great streams. But these many reser.
voir sites now preserved, where the
rains and deep SHOWS of winter renew
the supply each year, being filled when
the streams are overlooking, can be
made to regulate, to a degree. by skill
full and scientific management, the de-
pleted rivers of the coming year.
| What our people want to do, it was
| considered, is to hold these Businesses
'of the mountains, reserve and renew
their forests and join hands with ma
! ture and her vitalizing forces, so that
the republic may not halt in mid
career, as other nations have done,
from the exhaustion of it's domain,
but still perpetuate the blessings of
good government, cherished by the
land we live in.
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