Conservation Reader Part 11

1. Fires destroy an enormous amount of valuable timber every year.

2. Between fires and lumbermen our forests are disappearing faster than they are growing.

3. Fires destroy the young trees, and if they happen often enough will keep them from growing up to replace the mature trees.

4. Fires do not permanently help the cattle ranges, but injure them by burning the humus and gra.s.s seeds.

5. Fires leave the ground bare, so that it will dry out quickly.

6. Fires leave the soil unprotected, so that it will wash away quickly.

7. Fires destroy property and endanger lives.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS

We have already learned something about the poverty of the people in those lands where the forests have been destroyed. This poverty is due not so much to lack of wood for fuel and other purposes, but to a whole series of troubles which the removal of the forests has brought upon them.

The burning of the humus, when a fire sweeps the forest, is the next greatest loss to that of the timber itself. Where there has been no fire, the ground under the trees is covered with decaying leaves and stems which are slowly mixing with the soil and becoming a part of it.

The more there is of this humus in the soil, the more thriftily plants will grow.

Many people purposely burn over their pasture lands in the fall, believing that this will make the gra.s.s better the following year. They should know that every time this is done the soil is made poorer, and that it kills the seeds lying on the ground ready to sprout when the warm spring days come. Instead of a better pasture there is more likely to be a crop of almost worthless weeds. The ground is full of worthless seeds which are always ready to take the place of the gra.s.ses when they have a chance.

Before the fire came, the roots of trees, bushes, and gra.s.ses kept the earth from washing; and the humus helped to hold the rainwater from running away rapidly, so that more of it had time to soak into the ground. How well this is shown on yonder hills which were once covered with brush. A fire swept over these hills and burned every living thing.

What a barren appearance they presented after the heavy winter storms!

The slopes were completely covered with little furrows and gullies where the rainwater had done its work. It will be a long time before vegetation will again gain a foothold there and stop the washing of the earth.

When a fire occurs in the dense forests of the Cascade Range, all the trees are killed and the thick layer of decaying vegetation underneath is burned. The spruce, which is one of the most important lumber trees of this region, does not at once spring up again. Its seeds may be scattered there, but the soil is not now in a condition to nourish them.

In its place springs up the tamarack pine, which, because it can grow in poor soil, has the whole burned area to itself.

If we should return to the same place perhaps one hundred years after the fire, we should find that the tamarack pines had formed a thick forest. The lumbermen have little use for the tamarack and so have pa.s.sed it by. In looking carefully through the tamarack forest, we find that other trees are now springing up. They are already struggling for the food, the moisture, and the sunlight which the tamaracks are making use of.

During the many years that have pa.s.sed since the fire swept this region, decaying vegetation has been slowly acc.u.mulating and forming humus again. Now at last the seeds of the spruce find the soil rich enough again to sprout and grow. Here and there are thrifty young trees which will in a few years grow up and choke out the tamarack. Thus the tamarack, though of so little value itself, has done a great work in preparing the soil for a new growth of the valuable spruce.

Upon the drier slopes of the Western mountains shrubs, such as the manzanita and chaparral, spring up and cover the surface after a forest fire. Nature does not seem to want the surface left bare and usually has something at hand, even though it be nothing better than brush, with which to clothe it again. As the years pa.s.s humus begins to collect upon the ground and finally restores it to much the same condition it had before the fire. Now, if by any means seeds can reach such places, scattering trees will first spring up in favored spots and, after a time, the trees will become thick enough and large enough to shade the ground and the brush will be killed out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Forestry_ The work of the water where the forest has been cut away.]

The cutting of the forests, especially from the steeper mountain slopes, has in many parts of the world changed water, one of Nature's most valuable gifts, into an agent of destruction. Throughout the Eastern and Southern states the floods are higher in spring and lower in summer than they used to be, because of the removal of so large a part of the forests that once covered this whole region.

In the West it is even more necessary that the forest cover be disturbed as little as possible. One reason is that the greater part of the forests are found upon the lofty mountains in which the streams rise. If we deforest these steep slopes, water is going to injure them much more than it would the gentler slopes of the lower lands, if they had been deforested. Another reason is that since little rain falls in the summer in this region, we must do nothing to lessen the summer flow of the streams, which is so much needed for irrigation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Forestry a.s.sociation_ This beautiful valley in the Southern Appalachian Mountains has been ruined by the floods due to cutting off of the forests upon the headwaters of the river.]

The more water that can be held back in the mountains of the West for summer use, the more prosperous the farmers are. There is nothing that helps to hold the water better than the forests. They help to equalize the flow of the streams so that the floods are not so high in the spring nor the water so low in the summer as they would be if there were no forests.

One of the first questions asked by a man who is thinking of buying a farm is about the water supply. He wants to know whether there are wells, springs, or living streams on the place. Almost everything depends upon the water supply. If there is an abundance, the farmer is likely to be prosperous. When he is prosperous all the rest of us are prosperous, no matter what our business is.

Are you not ready now to say that the Swiss are right in not permitting tree cutting upon any land except under the supervision of a forester?

The careless removal of the forests from the mountain slopes may affect the farmer in the valley fifty miles away. Do you not think that this farmer is very much interested in the management of the forest, although he does not own a foot of it?

Trouble always follows the destruction of the forests on the headwaters of the streams.

CHAPTER TWENTY

HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS

As long as the forest shall live, The streams shall flow onward, still singing Sweet songs of the woodland, and bringing The bright, living waters that give New life to all mortals who thirst.

But the races of men shall be cursed.

Yea, the hour of destruction shall come To the children of men in that day When the forest shall pa.s.s away; When the low woodland voices are dumb; And death's devastation and dearth Shall be spread o'er the face of the earth.

Avenging the death of the wood, The turbulent streams shall outpour Their vials of wrath, and no more Shall their banks hold back the high flood, Which shall rush o'er the harvests of men; As swiftly receding again.

Lo! after the flood shall be dearth, And the rain no longer shall fall On the parching fields; and a pall, As of ashes, shall cover the earth; And dust-clouds shall darken the sky; And the deep water wells shall be dry.

And the rivers shall sink in the ground, And every man cover his mouth From the thickening dust, in that drouth; Fierce famine shall come; and no sound Shall be borne on the desolate air.

But a murmur of death and despair.

ALEXANDER BLAIR THAW, _The Pa.s.sing of the Forest_; in _Century Magazine_, June, 1907

For many years it was thought the forests were inexhaustible and needed no special care. The national government encouraged people to acquire forest land and practically gave away 160 acres to every one who would build a cabin upon the land and live there for a short time.

Suddenly some of the wise people among us awoke to a realization of what was going on. They discovered that the forests were going very fast and that soon we should have none if something were not done. Between the fires that swept them every year and the wasteful lumbering, the forests were in a fair way to leave us as they had the wasteful and careless peoples of other parts of the world.

How fortunate it is that some of us did look ahead before it was too late; for, although the Eastern forests have largely disappeared, there still remain millions of acres of government-owned forests in the West.

These forests have now been withdrawn from sale and are to be held for the use and benefit of all. They are not to be permitted to pa.s.s into the hands of a few, to be cut and sold for private gain.

Our government is acting like a wise father who is interested in the welfare of his children, and who understands the need of taking care of their treasures until they are wise enough to manage them for themselves.

We are all concerned in many ways in the welfare of the forests. Whether we own any forest land or not, we are affected by the way in which the trees are managed. Because we are all dependent more or less upon the forests, they should be regarded as the property of us all, just as the air and water are. But because some of us do not yet know how, or do not care, to protect them, it is best that the government should do so for us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Forestry a.s.sociation_ These men are replanting a mountain slope from which fire once swept the forest.]

It may be that you live in a brick, or stone house and burn coal in your stoves. You think that it makes no difference to you whether or not there are any forests. But stop and think a moment. Are you sure that you are really independent of them? How many things do you use every day that are made of wood? The list is surely a long one. If wood is rare and expensive, the articles which are made of it add to your cost of living and allow you less money for other things.

Let us suppose for a moment that you have no use for wood in any form.

Will this take away all interest that you may have in the forests? In any event you are dependent upon the fertility of your fields for the food that you require. Now, if there is a lumber company stripping the mountains at the head of the river upon which your home is situated, and as a result of clearing the timber from the slopes the floods become worse, your garden is buried beneath gravel and sand, and your orchard washed away, will you not think it _does_ make a difference to you in what way the forests are treated?