The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1911-04-28
WEI ABOVE DRY BELOW
Jungle and Desert Combined in Northwest
Washington

Experts of the Department of Agri-
culture have recently made study Of
a region in northwest Washington that
exhibits certain extraordinary features.
1t is as one might say, combination
of jungle and desert. Once upon a
time it was a desert, il has become
jungle and special precautions will
have to be taken to prevent it from
being transformed into a desert again.
In that part Of the country, almost
anywhere west of the Cascade Range,
the natural vegetation is of astonishing
luxuriance. Indeed, the exuberance Of
plant growth is such as to render the
district almost impenetrable. This
growth is dominated by great cedars
and Douglas frs, many Of which are
two hundred and fifty and three hundred
feet in height and seven to ten feet in
diameter. Below, gigantic ferns rise
to height of eight or ten feet. Con-
spicuous in the underground is the
devils club perennial shrub
with thorny stem, SO crooked that,
when stepped on, it rises and strikes
the wayfarer. Beneath the ground is
covered with Oregon grape and red
hucklebery; and the surface Of the soil
is spread with dense mat Of fir needles,
dead leaves of deveps club and fern,
and MOSES.
In this remarkable jungle the air is
very. moist-so much so, indeed, that
the ground is soaked all the year around.
1t is almost impossible to make any
progress except along trails, which are
always wet. Water is constantly gath
ering in puddles here and there, and
evrything is adrip at all seasons.
Yet, only two feet below the surface
the ground is the most absolute desert
to be found anywhere in the United
States. At that depth the earth is SO
dry no root can penetrate it. Hence
the great frs are obliged to maintain
themselves by sending out lateral root
systems to distance of fifty or seventy
five feet, none OF the rootlets dipping
more than twenty inches or so.
In the forest, these huge trees are
protected against windstorms, but if
one of them becomes isolated it is soon
overthrow and, as it lies prone, its
torn-up root system forms wall fifty
feet or more in height-a wall flat and
vertical as that of house.
The secret Of this remarkable state
of affairs lies in the fact that the soil Of
the region is glacial drift-that is to
say, it is composed of. ground-up rock
brought by vast ice-sheets and deposi-
ted as it moved sluggishly down from
the Cascades toward the coast. 1t is
fine powder, mixed with gravel, peb-
bles and boulders. There is almost no
surface streams; and owing to this cir
cumstance, the country would be a
desert but for the vegation which, dur
ing the rainy season has tendency to
spread very slowly from the higher
slopes of the mountains. In the
course of ages this vegetation, retaining
the winters rain through the summer,
after the manner Of a sponge, has COW
cred little by little the foothills and
lowlands.
Plant life, in word, has adapted it
self to hostile environment; and as a
result, the desert, though it remains
such at a depth of only two feet, has
been covered by jungle rivaling in
luxuriance anything to be found in the
tropics. The whole region. however,
will certainly become desert unless
the forests are conserved, or else re-
placed with crop plants that will retain
moisture through the summer. Ac-
cordingly a project is on foot by which
the state will assume control Of the
whole problem, teach the people just
what kind OF intensive farming they
should practice, and itself acquire own
ership of such areas as cannot eco
nomically be brought under the requis-
tie kind Of culture.
Lands Alleged Fish