Our National Forests. Richard H. D. Boerker
see any forest fires, not even smoke, because the Rangers seem to get to them before they get to be of any size." Such testimony as this speaks volumes for the efficiency of the present system of protecting the Forests from fire.
The Watershed Cover Was Preserved. The destruction of the forest cover on the watersheds feeding thousands of streams which rise in the western mountains would have had its bad effect on stream flow—low water during the long dry periods, and destructive floods after heavy rains. This condition of affairs would have meant disaster to the systems of irrigation by which most of the western farmers raise their crops. It would also have seriously impeded and in many cases prevented electric power development, to say nothing of affecting the domestic water of many of our large western cities whose drinking water comes from the streams rising in the National Forests. The protection of these valuable watersheds by the Forest Service from fire and destructive lumbering is of such vital importance to the welfare of the nation that it has been made one of the main reasons for establishing National Forests.
Civilization Brought to the Mountains. What the National Forest movement has done for settling and building up the Western States can hardly be overestimated. It has brought civilization into the wilderness. Roads, trails, telephone lines, and other modern conveniences have been brought to remote corners of the mountains. It has encouraged the settlement of the country by calling attention to the agricultural lands within the National Forests. More important than that, it has assured the West permanent towns, permanent civilization, and not a temporary, careless, shiftless civilization which vanishes with the exploitation of resources, as it did under the old régime.
The improvements on the National Forests have benefited not only the Forest officers for the administration of the Forests. They have helped immensely the local population. The pleasure resorts as well as the business of the Forests have been made more accessible. New trails have opened up new and hitherto inaccessible country, where fishing, hunting, and trapping are ideal. All the old and new roads and trails have been well marked with sign boards giving the tourist detailed information about distances between the various points of interest. Roads have opened up new regions to automobiles and to the horse and wagon. In 1916 it was estimated that more than 2,000,000 people visited the National Forests for recreation and pleasure. They came in automobiles, in horse and wagon, on horseback, on mules, on burros, and in all sorts of made-to-order contrivances, and the writer has even seen those that could not afford anything better, pack their camp outfits in a wheelbarrow and push it before them in their effort to leave the hot, dusty valleys below, and go to the refreshing and invigorating Forests of Uncle Sam. In addition to the large numbers of tourists that visit the National Forests every year, over 100,000 persons or companies use the National Forests. Of these a little more than half are paid users, who are charged a fair fee for timber, grazing, or other privileges and a little less than half enjoy free use privileges.
Agricultural Lands Opened to Settlement. The settlement of the agricultural lands in the National Forests is a matter that has received special attention at the hands of the Forest Service in late years. Land more valuable for agriculture than for timber growing was excluded from the National Forests before the boundaries were drawn, so far as this was possible. Small tracts of agricultural land within the Forests which could not be excluded are opened to settlement under the Forest Homestead Act of June 11, 1906. The amount of land, however, that is more valuable for agriculture than for timber is trifling, because the greater part of the valuable land was already settled before the Forests were created. The few small patches that are left inside of the National Forest boundaries are rapidly being classified and opened to entry for homesteads. Much of the land apparently adapted for agricultural purposes has a severe climate because it lies at high altitudes and it is often remote from roads, schools, villages, and markets. Therefore the chance offered the prospective settler in the immediate vicinity of the Forests is far better than in the Forests themselves. The Forest Service is doing everything it can to encourage homesteaders on the National Forests; it wants them because they help to report fires, help to fight fires, and in many other ways assist the Forest officers.
Permanent and Not Temporary Civilization Resulted. Only those people who have been brought up near a large lumbering center can appreciate what it means when a town vanishes; when all that is left of a thriving town of 5,000 or more souls is empty streets, empty houses, and heaps of tin cans. In the days of the Golden Age of lumbering in Michigan many towns flourished in the midst of the forests. These towns had thrifty, busy people, with schools, churches, banks, and other conveniences. These people were engaged in exploiting the forests. The beautiful white pine forests were converted into boards at the rate of thousands of feet every day. When these magnificent forests were laid low, the lumbermen left to seek virgin timber elsewhere. They left behind them empty towns and barren lands; only a few charred stumps remained to show where the forests once stood. But this is not an incident peculiar to the Golden Age of lumbering in Michigan. Even to-day this very thing is happening. The town of Crossfork, Potter County, Pennsylvania, had a population of over 2,500 souls in 1909. When the nearby timber was exhausted, practically the whole town was abandoned. In 1913 it had a population of 50.
In direct contrast to this short-sighted policy of the State of Michigan (and many others also) is the National Forest policy, which provides for a future supply of forest products as well as a present supply; which provides for work and homes and schools and churches for future generations as well as for the present; which provides for a permanent industry and not one that vanishes with the exploitation of the resources of a region as snow vanishes under the warm rays of a spring day. Lumbering even to-day is merely the removal of every vestige of timber that has any sale value. But forestry, which is practiced on the National Forests, removes only the mature trees, leaving the young growth to be cut at some future time. Lumbering has been and is to-day forest destruction; forestry is forest conservation under a system of wise use. Lumbering is followed usually by fire, and often by an entire impoverishment of the region in which it is carried on because it destroys both the mature tree and the young growth; under a system of forestry, cutting is followed by young, green forests which are protected from fire for the benefit of future generations. Such a system leaves the region and the industry in a permanent, good condition. The county under the old system receives no more taxes after its wealth is gone; but each county will receive taxes or money in lieu of taxes every year as long as the National Forests shall endure.
Figure 7. The remains of the old boiler house. The town once had a sawmill, planning mill, lath mill, besides modern conveniences. All these are now gone after the forests have been cut. Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan.
Figure 8. Deserted houses, abandoned after the sawmill left. These are the remains of what was once a prosperous town. Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan.
Financial Returns. All the benefits of which I have spoken are without doubt great assets to the local community, to the State, and to the nation as a whole. They are great contributions to the welfare of our country even though they cannot be measured in dollars and cents. This brings us then to the financial aspect of the National Forest movement. Even though the fundamental purpose of the National Forests was in no sense a financial one, it is interesting to look into the finances of this great forestry enterprise.
The total regular appropriation for salaries, general expenses, and improvements for the fiscal year 1918 is $5,712,275. For 1917 it was slightly less than this: $5,574,735. The receipts from the sale or rental of National Forest resources in the fiscal year 1917 reached $3,457,028.41. From these figures it will be seen that the expenditures exceed the receipts by between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 a year, depending partly on the severity of the fire season and partly on the activity of the general lumber market. When we consider that this is really a newly established business scarcely twenty years old; that large expenditure have been made and must necessarily be made every year for equipment and improvements before the resources could even be used; and that an efficient organization had to be built up to handle the business, we must confess that the receipts are really a wonderful showing.
When