Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/321

Rh the West. There is no more forcible statement of the dependence of irrigation upon forestry than the following extract from the first message of President Roosevelt to Congress:

In the arid region, it is water, not land, which measures production. The western half of the United States would sustain a population greater than that of our whole country to-day, if the waters that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal questions of the United States.

The forests are natural reservoirs. By restraining the floods and by replenishing them in drought, they make possible the use of water otherwise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and so protect the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation is, therefore, an essential condition of water conservation.

Another function of the forest reserves, the regulation of which is at present the most urgent problem of their management, is the use of the grazing lands within their boundaries. Sheep and cattle raising are, and will continue to be, two of the great industries of the arid region. The over-grazing of lands important in the conservation of water supply is harmful in the dying out and hardening of the soil, as a result of the removal of its cover of herbs and grasses, and, in the case of over-grazing by sheep, in the destruction of seedlings and young trees. The purpose of forestry is not to impose unreasonable restrictions upon the development of the grazing industry within the reserves, but to regulate it with due reference to the interests both of the stockman and the irrigator.

The production of timber to fill the increasing needs of the mining industry is another great function of the national forest reserves. The laws governing their management confer upon the Secretary of the Interior power to designate, appraise and sell timber within them. The exercise of this provision under conservative measures can alone continue to permit an adequate supply of timber to the miner and for the home uses of settlers within the arid region.

Wood and water are the chief returns from forested areas. They produce the one and they conserve the other. So far, the treatment of our forests has tended only to impair their usefulness. Preservation without use is required neither of the private owner nor the federal government. Forest preservation by wise use alone can meet the national and the individual need.