Conservation Reader Part 12

The timbered lands which the government is holding and caring for are known as National Forests. About two thirds of the forests yet remaining in the West are included in them. These lands are mostly mountainous and not suited to agriculture.

In the East the government has no lands except those which it buys.

Because of the great damage which is being done to the streams and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains by careless lumbering, a great tract of land is being acquired by purchase. This is called the Appalachian Forest. The timber in this region will be carefully cut and those areas from which it has been stripped will be replanted.

In the White Mountains of New Hamps.h.i.+re, with Mt. Was.h.i.+ngton as the center, is a remnant of a once beautiful forest, which has been acquired by the government. This is known as the White Mountain Forest. It will be enlarged as the years pa.s.s and carefully guarded. It will serve for all time as a beautiful pleasure and camping ground.

It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their duties are of many kinds.

The rangers supervise the sale and cutting of the mature or ripe trees as they are needed for lumber, mining timbers, or posts. They see that the waste parts of the cut trees are piled so as to lessen the danger from chance fires.

During the long summers the forests become as dry as tinder and the loss from fire amounts to millions of dollars every year. It is the chief duty of the rangers at this time to patrol the roads and trails leading through the forests and keep a sharp lookout for fires.

Stations have been established upon high points from which there is a view over a wide extent of country. In each of these stations there is a man constantly on watch for columns of smoke which indicate the beginning of a forest fire. When smoke is seen a message is telephoned to the ranger station nearest the fire, and from this station men are sent as quickly as possible with the object of putting out the fire before it spreads beyond the power of control. The forests are now watched so carefully that hundreds of fires are thus stopped before there has been any serious loss of timber.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ STOP Forest Fires They are a Curse to the People of Pennsylvania FOREST Existing Forests FIRES Possibility of Future Forests DESTROY Possibility of Labor Beauty of a Region Comfort Homes Lives Prosperity Protected Forests Increase in Value They Furnish Labor, Promote Industry, Afford Recreation and Sport, Make a Region Beautiful, Make Home Safe and Comfortable, Make Life Worth Living, and a Prosperous State Inhabited by a Contented and Industrious People. Which Would You Rather Have FOREST FIRES } { GREEN FORESTS FLOODS } { PURE WATER DISEASE } OR { HEALTH DESTRUCTION } { THRIVING INDUSTRIES DEVASTATION } { PROSPERITY For Information Respecting Pennsylvania Forests and Tree Planting, write to COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Ill.u.s.tration: This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches, has been of excellent service in Pennsylvania.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Forestry_ The seed trees left by the lumberman are giving rise to a new forest.]

In convenient places the rangers store boxes of tools, which include axes, picks, shovels, and rakes to be used in fighting any near-by fire.

They also have at hand provisions and camp outfits, so as to be able to live anywhere in the woods.

In some parts where there is a great deal of small timber and brush, "fire lines" are cut along the ridges where it is easiest to stop a fire, should one occur. Our forests are so vast that it is not possible to remove the dead wood as is done in Europe and thus lessen the danger of fire.

The forest rangers also wage a warfare against insect pests. In regions where the bark beetles carry on their destructive work among the pines, the rangers sometimes cut down and burn thousands of trees. Another duty of the rangers is that of replanting burned or logged-off areas. In this way many thousands of acres which would otherwise remain waste land for years, not being suitable for agriculture, are made in a short time to produce a new forest.

A limited number of cattle and sheep are allowed in those forests which can be pastured without doing injury to the young trees or affecting the flow of the streams. The rangers have charge of this work and collect the rent. A part of the money derived from the sale of timber and for pasturage rights is expended in the improvement of the roads and trails in the forests and in making the forests more safe from fire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ A beautiful gra.s.sy meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.]

The National Forests are open to all for pleasure and recreation, but under strict regulations about the cutting of trees and the care of camp fires. Violators of these rules are severely punished. Visitors to the forests are expected to take care in the selection of places for their camp fires so that there will be no danger of the fire spreading. When the camp is left, the fire must be put out with water or covered with earth.

Many states have forest services of their own, and some have conservation commissions. It is the business of these organizations to look after various natural resources, including the forests, water, soil, minerals, and wild game. All forest rangers as well as state fire wardens are authorized to aid in the enforcement of the game laws.

We should a.s.sist the foresters and wardens in every way possible. Most of these men love the woods, the birds, and the animals. They are doing their best to protect the forest and its wild life for the good and happiness of us all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants the friend of sun and sky; He plants the flag of breezes free; The shaft of beauty, towering high; He plants a home to heaven anigh For song and mother-croon of bird In hushed and happy twilight heard-- The treble of heaven's harmony-- These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants cool shade and tender rain, And seed and bud of days to be, And years that fade and flush again; He plants the glory of the plain; He plants the forest's heritage; The harvest of a coming age; The joy that unborn eyes shall see-- These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants, in sap and leaf and wood, In love of home and loyalty And far-cast thought of civic good-- His blessing on the neighborhood Who in the hollow of His hand Holds all the growth of all our land-- A nation's growth from sea to sea Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.

H. C. BUNNER, _The Heart of the Tree_; in _Century Magazine_, April, 1893

Our National Parks and Forests form the grandest summer playgrounds that any people have ever had. The National Forests, we have learned, were set aside for the direct purpose of preserving the timber supply and regulating the flow of the mountain streams. The National Parks were created for the purpose of preserving for all time the most beautiful and attractive scenic features of our country. Among the most important of these are the Yellowstone, Grand Canon, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater Lake parks. They include many thousands of square miles of forested mountains, cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers, which are open to all of us with no restrictions except that we do not injure them.

How delightful it is to have these wild and picturesque parts of our country left unspoiled and just as Nature made them, and to be able to wander through them at will! In the parks we can become acquainted with the flowers, trees, birds, and animals as they were before the country was discovered and settled by white men. Here the wild creatures are protected from the hunters. The deer no longer fear the sight of men, and the mother grouse can raise her brood in safety from them.

When summer comes we feel a strange and mysterious longing to get out of doors and live in the forests with the wild creatures. The parks offer just the opportunity to satisfy this longing, for in them we can get away from the worries and perplexities of our everyday life.

We feel the "call of the wild," perhaps, because long ago our savage ancestors dwelt in the forests among the hills. They were a part of Nature and lived much as the animals do in caves in the hillsides, or in homes of the rudest sort made of the bark of trees or the skins of animals.

Our ancestors spent nearly all of their time out of doors in the pure, fresh air. Their eyes and ears were trained to every sign of the forest, for upon the sharpness of their senses their very lives depended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _George J. Young_ A forest playground on Virginia Creek in the Yosemite country, California, in one of Uncle Sam's forest reserves.]

We have lived in houses so long, where the air is often close and impure and where we have no need of sharp senses for protection, that we have lost some of the strength and st.u.r.dy self-reliance of our wild ancestors.

We have become partly dulled to the beauty out of doors, because we have been so constantly employed by the business of making a living. But the forest playgrounds are calling us to return for a little time each year to the wilds that were once our home, and to renew our acquaintance with the trees, the streams and the rocks, and with the wild creatures that live among them. To be able to make our beds on the leaves under the trees, and to build a fire of sticks and cook our own food, seems quite natural and like old and familiar times.

The stories and legends that have come down to us about the forests and the imaginary people who lived in them were believed to be true by the people of long ago. The deep, dark woods once covered nearly all Europe where our ancestors lived. To be lost in the woods was to be in danger of meeting the strange and mysterious people who were thought to live in their depths. Among these beings, some of whom were good and others bad, were fairies, nymphs, gnomes, and ogres. When people ceased to believe so much in these stories, they began to lose their fear of the woods.

Among some of these people there grew up a love and fascination for the trees which they believed were the dwelling places of spirits or divinities.

If in our great forest playgrounds we can lead this out-of-door life for a few weeks each year, it will make us healthier, stronger, and happier.

We no longer fear any mysterious creatures in the woods or the forces of Nature as shown in the lightning, the winds, and the waterfalls; but year by year we are finding more to love and admire in the wild scenery of the woods and mountains and in their animal and plant inhabitants.

The wild woods call many of us on jaunts and picnics when, if it were not for them, we should stay at home shut up in stuffy rooms. In time may not the love of the forest wilds come back to us all? May not the time come when each one of us shall be able to look at a beautiful tree and not think only of how much lumber it would make? May not the time come when we may hear the grouse drumming its call and not feel the desire to kill and eat it?

If the time does come in which we think as much of our beautiful mountains as the people of Europe do of the Alps, we shall then guard them with far more jealous care than we do today. In spite of the fact that the Alps are wet and cold and that no one thinks of sleeping out of doors there, yet the people of Europe love their mountains almost pa.s.sionately.

Our mountains are much more attractive summer playgrounds than the Alps.

We can wander at will over a far greater number of untrodden ways than Europeans can in the Alps. We can make our beds under the trees with rarely a thought of the weather. The air is always balmy and the skies are almost always blue.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS

How eagerly we have looked forward to the coming of spring, and now it is here! The sun is s.h.i.+ning brighter and warmer each day. The birds are returning from their winter home in the South. The buds on the trees are swelling and, in the warm nooks, some of the wild flowers have already opened their delicate petals. Who will find the first _spring beauty_ in the Eastern woods? Who will find the first of the _purple trilliums_ that open their dark flowers in the shady groves, or the _golden poppies_ on the warm hillsides of the West?

The spring air affects us as it does the plants and wild creatures. We long to get away from school, and taking our lunches, to spend the delightful days wandering through the fields and woods. There is no place like the open country when all Nature is waking. We feel like running and frisking as the young lambs do.

Can it be wrong to gather all that we wish of the beautiful flowers with which the earth is carpeted? Has not Nature grown them in her great garden in such abundance that all we pick will make no difference to her? Let us go with the children on their rambles after flowers and learn if Nature does take any account of their innocent raids on her treasures.