gs
help feed the streams during the long, dry summers, when the water
is so sorely needed in the hot valleys below.

THE NATIONAL PARKS AND FOREST RESERVES

The people who first pushed into the unknown country west of the
Mississippi, in the earlier half of the last century, were chiefly
hunters and trappers. They did not intend to make permanent homes
in the wilds, but rather to stay only so long as they could secure
an abundance of fur-bearing animals.

Then came the discovery of the precious metals, and thousands of
gold-seekers crossed the plains, and spread out over the mountains
of the Cordilleran region. They, too, expected to get rich by making
use of the resources of the country, and return to their homes in
the East.

At the present time the destruction of our forests and serious injury
to the water supply has been threatened through the organization of
large lumber companies. Those interested in lumbering usually live
far removed from the scenes of their operations, and consequently
care little about the condition in which the deforested lands are
left.

The farmers were the first permanent occupants of the West. Unlike
the wandering trappers and miners, they established homes and made
the land richer instead of poorer. As long as the population was
scanty there was not much danger of exterminating the wild animals,
and the demands for timber were small.

Our forefathers who settled the Eastern states had to contend with
the forests. Nearly every acre of ground had to be laboriously
cleared before anything could be planted. It was only natural that
they should come to regard the forests as a hindrance rather than
a blessing.

As the settlers spread westward to the prairies and plains they
came upon a region almost destitute of forests; but still farther,
in the mountains of the continental divide and the Pacific slope,
they again found extensive forests. To them it seemed impossible
that these forests could ever be exhausted, and therefore little
care was taken for their preservation.

As the population increased, more and more lumber was needed for
building purposes. Before the sawmill came split lumber was used,
and the shake-maker did not hesitate to cut down the largest and
most valuable pines on the mere possibility that fifteen or twenty
feet of the butt would split well enough to make shakes. It made
no difference to him that the whole trunk rotted upon the ground.

When the sawmill