Figure 20. Extracting tree seed from the cones. The dried cones are shaken around until the seeds drop out through the wire mesh which forms the sides of the machine.
And there are many evidences that the people of the West have begun to realize that the National Forests are the key to the entire water-supply situation in the West no matter for what purpose the water is used. The public consideration now being given to flood control, the requests from many western cities for special measures to protect their municipal water supply, the concern expressed by irrigation associations in Colorado and elsewhere, lest even the regulated cutting on the National Forests may reduce stream flow, and the rapid rate at which unused reservoir and power sites in the Forests are being developed, all are evidences of the importance of Forests in protecting water supplies. Reforestation is essential so that the National Forests can effectively discharge this function.
Government Reforestation Policy. The duty of the Forest Service to put the denuded areas which will not be reforested naturally into a condition of productivity admits of no further argument. But the problem is not so easily solved as it is made clear. Under the semi-arid conditions prevailing on many National Forests this work involves uncertainties and unsolved problems. On the National Forests artificial reforestation was an untried field when the Forest Service entered it. The Government therefore had to develop its own practice in the face of a great variety of conditions, largely unfavorable. The situation still calls for intensive experiments to develop the best methods from the standpoint of both cost and results. More than that, it calls for a different set of methods for each forest region of the West which has its peculiar trees, climate, and soils. Then, lastly, when the proper methods have been demonstrated by experiment, the new methods can be applied on a large scale with a very good chance for success.
Therefore intensive experiments must come first. Business prudence requires the development of all methods in detail and reasonable certainty as to their results before large sums are expended upon field operations. In the least favorable regions like the semi-arid mesas of the Southwest, the work is restricted for the present to small, carefully conducted experiments, the result sought being reliable information upon how to proceed rather than the reforestation of many acres. In the most favorable regions, as the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Ranges, the results already obtained have been so excellent, due to an unusual combination of good growing conditions, that operations upon a larger scale have been justified simultaneously with continued intensive investigations. As the work is extended into each new region or new National Forest, the most favorable sites are always chosen first. After the possibilities and limitations of each method have been ascertained by experience under the best conditions of each locality the work can either be intelligently extended or restricted. But the work is always conducted from the standpoint of the maximum return for each dollar expended.
In accordance with the policy outlined by the Forest Service watersheds used for municipal supply or irrigation continue to receive first consideration. Large sums are not, however, being spent on such watersheds where any uncertainty as to the outcome exists; that is before successful methods have been perfected by experiment. In addition to watersheds, reforestation work is being conducted for the primary object of producing timber only where climatic conditions and other factors are extremely favorable. As far as possible these areas are being selected with reference to the low cost of the work, natural conditions which insure rapid tree growth, and urgent local need for additional timber supplies. These favorable conditions generally obtain in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, and Michigan and it is in these States that the best results have been obtained. In California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and the Southwest the work is restricted to intensive experiments on a small scale, until successful methods of meeting the adverse local conditions have been perfected.
Figure 21. Preparing the ground with a spring-tooth harrow for the broadcast sowing of tree seeds. Battlement National Forest, Colorado. This view was taken at approximately 10,000 feet elevation. Photo by the author.
