The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-08-12
.REFORESTAT|ON IN
CONTROL Of FLOODS
RATIONAL LAND USE REQUIRED
IN FLOOD CONTROL SAYS
CHIEF FORESTER GREELEY
OF THE U. S. DEPARTMENT.

The many elements IN flood con-
troll, including reforestation and the
maintenance of protective forest
cover on watersheds, bring US down
to the bed rock of the rational use
of land, says Colonel William B.
Greeley, Chief of the Forest Service,
United States Department of Agrl-
culture.
No changes in our use of the land
surface can prevent floods when ex-
ceptionally heavy rains occur, the
Chief Forester states. The primary
control of large floods rests with
the engineer, but the productive use
of land, aside from insuring such
public benefits as timber supply,
conservation of forage, the saving
of soil fertility and the preservation
of wild life, can aid in the ameliora-
ton of flood conditions.
In a recent statement before the
Mississippi flood conference at Chi
cago, Colonel Greeley urged that in
the study of flood control measures
on the Mississippi survey be made
of the forested, denuded, and aban-
doned farm lands in the basin. This
survey, he said, should set forth
the areas where more complete pro-
lection from forest fires is needed |;
where extensive tree planting should
be done; and where public forest
ownership. either state or federal,
is necessary to flood control. Based
upon the survey, he would have
specific recommendations made for
the guidance of federal agencies in
administering the present forestry
laws, for additional legislation if
needed, and for determining the CO.
the several states in attaining the
ends sought.
''The Mississippi basin contains
about 100000 acres of forested
or denuded land which has little or
no utility except in growing timber"
said Colonel Greeley. "No one can
assert that the conditions of this vast
land surface, or the degree of care
or of neglect which it receives, have
no bearing upon the flow of the
Mississippi river.
"Any benefits derived from re-
forestation cannot be secured over
night. They will come about through
a long space of time. Hence forests
cannot be substituted for the en-
cheering structures upon which our
main reliance must be placed for
controlling heavy flood discharges.
They can supplement dams or levees,
but cannot take their place. In
dealing with this problem, forestry
should be the handmaiden of en-
cheering; but as a handmaiden it
has valuable service to offer"
The role of forests is important
as an influence in the behavior of
streams, Colonel Greeley said. For
ests cause more gradual melting
of snow, reduce erosion or washing
away of soil and silt, and in some
measure create a surface reservoir
that holds back part of the rain and
feeds it into the streams more
slowly. The trees and bushes them
selves intercept some of the rain
and delay its progress to the earth.
The mat of litter found under
thrifty, unburned forests acts like
sponge, and the water absorbing
capacity of the soil itself is greatly
increased by the constant accretions
of decaying humus.
every forest fire in the sMissis-
sippi basin tends, sooner or later, to
augment flood conditions" Colonel
Greeley said. every abandoned
or neglected piece of poor hillside
farm land has the same tendency.
Destructive numbering or overgraz-