Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-04-14
Can Floods Be Prevented?

Can Floods BE Prevented?
Toledo Blade: While the passion
for investigation is on, it ought to
be worth while to make an investiga-
tion of the Ohio flood of 1913-what
caused it, how it might have been
prevented, what means might be un-
dertaken to prevent an annual inun-
dation.
Through the studies of forestry ex-
-perts it has been learned that one of
the causes, if not the most important
cause, of floods is the telling of the
trees which once occupied more than
three-quarters of all the land stretch
ing between the Appalachian chain
of mountains and the open prairie
stretches of Illinois. The trees them
selves not only absorbed large part
of the rain, but also they delayed the
run-off. The leaf turf under the
trees caught some of the moisture.
Much was taken up by the under
brush. Grass weeds, the reeds along
streams, the accumulation of vegeta-
BILE matter in brooks and runs and
rivulets all performed some share in
holding the water back and prevent
ing its pouring too rapidly into the
larger creeks and the rivers. 1t was
not alone that the run-off was made
to progress slowly, but also that veg
citation, after taking up the water,
gave some of it back to the air with
the passing of the rains and the
coming of dryer weather.
In making Ohio inhabitable for
civilized man, the trees have been
felled, the underbrush has been cut
away, the grass lands have been
plowed up, and where there were
swamps, shallow lakes and forest
pools-doing some part in catching
and holding the melted SHOWS and
the spring rains-the lands have
been drained. The excess water is
carried away through drain tiles into
bitches, thence into the brooks, on
into creeks and rivers. The run-off
which may have taken days, which,
indeed, may have taken weeks, now
takes place in the course of only a
few hours. There is nothing to hold
it back, but everything to encourage
its going. The result is high water
every year, and, in such times of ex-
traordinary rainfall as the last three
or four days, floods which ruin prop
erty, wash away millions Of dollars
worth of farm soil, wreck cities and
cause the loss of many human lives.
The restoration of the forests is,
of course, out of the question. But
part of the beneficial effects that
forests had in staying floods might
be obtained by other means. Some
system of impounding the waters of
small streams might be devised. The
state could establish reservoirs which
would care for much of the rainfall
that reaches the rivers all too sud
denly. 1t could encourage the plant
ing of trees by every roadside, along
the lines marking off fields and
farm properties, beside all streams
and wherever there are unproductive
hills, rocky and infertile acres. We
do not know whether such trees
could serve the ends desired. That
would be something for the investi-
gators to find out.
The federal government, in estab-
fishing the Appalachian forest re-
serves, is adopting measures which
will in every likelihood relieve in
time the people dwelling along the
Ohio river of their annual flood
scare and save them the flight to the
hills, not to mention the equally i'm
portant saving of property and
means of livelihood. The state of
Ohio, within it's resources, ought to
do what 1t can to relieve the people
of the interior of danger and loss by
flood. What that should be, a COM
mission of intelligent investigators
could find out.