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 sawmills were built and there came a demand from abroad for lumber, the forests were attacked upon a much larger scale. The need of the moment was all that concerned the lumbermen, and they took no care for the preservation of the young trees, which in time would have renewed the supply. The litter of the trunks and branches which they left upon the ground furnished fuel for the fires which frequently swept over these areas and killed the remaining growth.
As a result of these fires, the few animals that have escaped the hunters have been killed or driven from their homes, and the forest cover, which would retain much of the moisture and preserve it for the supply of the streams in summer, has been destroyed. The removal of the forest cover leads also to the washing away of the soil, the shoaling of the streams, floods in spring, and low water in summer. In fact, all the people and industries of the region are affected by its loss. It may take hundreds of years for the country to recover; indeed, if the rainfall is light, the forests may never grow again, without artificial aid.
FIG. 130.—A BURNED FOREST, CASCADE RANGE, OREGON