Conservation Reader Part 10

There is now enough land so that it is no longer necessary to destroy the trees in order to raise our food supplies. The forests const.i.tute one of the great natural resources of our country and men should not be allowed to waste them for private gain.

Although the need for more land has long pa.s.sed, the habit of reckless tree cutting still continues. There are now parts of the East where none of the primeval forest remains and very little of the second growth.

Firewood is expensive and many a farmer has to buy coal, who, if he and his ancestors had been careful, might have a woodlot to supply not only fuel, but lumber for his buildings.

Many of the lands once cleared were found not suited to farming and have been left to grow up to brush. If the farmer were wise he would replant some of these lands with such trees as spruce, hickory, walnut, or maple. Although his ancestors toiled early and late to get these trees out of the way, a few acres of them now would be a fortune.

There are parts of our country, particularly in the South and West, where the settlers are still cutting the trees to get them out of their way. In distant mountain valleys where there is no market for lumber, men are chopping down the great pines. They would make fine lumber, for they are tall and straight, but instead of being put to some useful end their fate is the bonfire. It makes no difference to these men that they are wasting what it has taken Nature hundreds of years to produce nor that in other parts of the country timber is scarce and expensive.

In Germany and Switzerland the forest resources are carefully looked after. As fast as the grown trees are cut from a field, young trees are planted in their places. The keeping of a certain part of the land in forest is held to be of advantage to all the people. For this reason men are not allowed to cut trees upon their own land without permission from the forest officer.

Many years ago, when lumbering became an important industry and the mills began to turn out immense quant.i.ties of boards and beams of every sort needed by the growing population of our new country, it was believed that the supply would never be used up. Only the best and clearest logs were sawed into lumber, and a large part of each tree was left on the ground to rot or to feed the first fire that occurred. Now lumber is scarce and expensive; and the poorer grades also are in much demand.

Have you ever seen the giant sugar pines on the slopes of the Western mountains? Next to the sequoias they are the largest of our American trees. A single tree has furnished lumber enough for a house. Sugar pine has now become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut and wasted in the most reckless fas.h.i.+on.

If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting.

This is the work of the shake or s.h.i.+ngle maker. He has been as thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up and ripens its seed in one season. The s.h.i.+ngle maker must have material which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to rot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is wasted.]

The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests.

On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the various processes through which it pa.s.ses before it reaches our hands.

In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way possible.

Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open s.p.a.ces between the large ones, rests our hope of a future forest.

When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches and fragments of the trunks lie scattered about, while above the ruin rise those trees not considered worth cutting. The once beautiful and majestic forest is now ready for fire. Some pa.s.ser-by may drop a lighted match or cigarette, and you can easily form a picture in your mind of what happens.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ The shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has been a thousand years in growing.]

In the countries of Europe lumbermen are very careful; not a particle of the cut tree goes to waste. The logs are sawed without removing what we call "slabs." The sawdust is saved and used in the manufacture of wood alcohol. If we saved all the present waste in the logging and milling of our pines, we could make all the turpentine needed in our country. If we saved what is now wasted of the poplar and spruce, we should have material enough to make all the paper we use.

There are still large and valuable forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, and the Coast Ranges. These regions were settled later than the Eastern states, and parts of them are yet remote from markets.

Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop.

Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except that it cannot be cut every year.

Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest.

Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in part on how the forests are managed.

If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES

He who wantonly kills a tree, All in a night of G.o.d-sent dream, He shall travel a desert waste Of pitiless glare, and never a stream, Nor a blade of gra.s.s, nor an inch of shade-- All in a wilderness he has made.

O, forlorn without trees!

He who tenderly saves a tree, All in a night of G.o.d-sent dream, He shall list to a hermit thrush Deep in the forest by mountain stream, With friendly branches that lead and shade, All in a woodland that he has made.

O, the peace of the trees!

He who pa.s.sionately loves a tree, Growth and power shall understand; Everywhere he shall find a friend.

Listen! They greet him from every land, English Oak and the Ash and Thorn, Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall, Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine, Flowering branches by orchard wall-- Suns.h.i.+ne, shadow, and sweetness of glade-- All in a Paradise he has made.

O, the joy of the trees!

_The Dryad's Message_

Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and with suffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Forestry a.s.sociation_ The forest fire sweeps everything in its path.]

It is no wonder that those whose homes are in the forest gather quickly to fight the fire, for if they cannot control it, they may lose everything that they possess. If there is a wind blowing, the fire will probably sweep over many miles of country. At night, though, when the air becomes cooler and more quiet, the men can get the advantage of it.

You can understand, of course, that it is impossible to use water against such a fire, for water is not to be had throughout most parts of the forests. Instead of using water, the men fight fire with fire.

Taking shovels, hoes, and rakes to a suitable place some distance ahead of the fire, they rake away the dead litter on the ground, making a broad, clean path through the forest. Then they set "back-fires" along that side of this clean path which lies toward the coming fire. These back-fires burn slowly toward the main fire, and when they meet both must die out for lack of fuel.

For many years forest fires have caused as much damage as the lumbermen; but now most of the forests are patrolled by rangers during the summer, and there are fewer serious fires.

How do the fires start in the forest? It is supposed that long ago the Indians set many fires to keep the woods open for their hunting.

Lightning has always been a frequent cause of forest fires. As many as a dozen fires are known to have started during a single thunderstorm. But such fires are not as serious as they once were, because the rangers are on the watch for them and put them out before they get well started.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ Fires destroyed the forest that once covered this region and its place is now mostly occupied by small bushes.]

Aside from those due to lightning, most forest fires are now either set purposely or come from engine sparks or from somebody's carelessness.

Many fires are set purposely by stockmen who think by this means to clear away the brush and thus obtain better feed for their cattle and sheep. These men often care nothing for the forests or for the preservation of the summer water flow. They would, indeed, be pleased to see all the forests burned away if by that means they could increase their feed. If you could travel through some of the mountainous portions of the Southwest, you would see how much harm has been done in this way to the trees, the streams, and the soil.

It is a hot summer day and two men are riding along a mountain road. One of them thoughtlessly throws away a lighted cigarette, which falls upon some dry pine needles. In a few moments the pine needles are ablaze. The fire spreads with incredible rapidity and a great column of smoke rises above the treetops. Before any one can reach it, the fire is sweeping up the mountain side, and it may not be stopped before it has destroyed thousands of acres of valuable timber. All this terrible loss is due to one careless man who, in the first place, should not have been smoking cigarettes, and in the second place should have known better than to throw a spark into the forest powder magazine.

Some campers, enjoying the summer in the mountains, go away leaving their fire burning. By and by a stick burns outward until the fire reaches the leaves, or a gust of wind comes along and carries a spark to them. In the hot sun the leaves and needles are almost as easy to ignite as powder, and in a few moments another fire is making headway into the surrounding forest.

A farmer clearing land thinks he can get rid of the brush and young trees more easily by burning. But the undergrowth is drier than he thought, and, the wind coming up unexpectedly, the fire is soon beyond his control. It may destroy his own fences and buildings and, sweeping on, ruin those of his neighbors also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ The dead stubs of a once beautiful forest.]

Few people have perished from fires in the West, for there the forest regions are generally thinly inhabited, but in some of the Eastern and Northern states there have been terrible fires that have destroyed whole villages together with their inhabitants.

In many mountain regions of our country there are large areas now covered with useless brush where there were once valuable forests. In regions where the lumbermen have not utterly destroyed the forests, but have left some seed trees, the forests will come back again, but in these large burned areas conditions are not favorable. The destruction of the humus as well as the trees has been so complete that the seeding of a new forest is slow work. It may be hundreds of years before the trees will spread over and again take possession of the waste land.

A single fire often destroys more timber than would be destroyed by a whole camp of loggers working for years. In the Northwest there are many sad and desolate pictures of the destruction caused by forest fires. We may travel for miles through forests of tall, dead stubs, the remains of once n.o.ble trees. Where they have fallen the trunks lie piled many feet high and trails had to be cut through an almost solid ma.s.s of timber.

Here is wood enough to supply thousands of people with pleasant winter fires. But there are, alas, no people living near these vast woodpiles and often no road to them. The logs must lie there and rot.

Now let us see if we can state the chief reasons why we should be exceedingly careful about setting fires in the woods: