Show forest protection t 11 A t I 1 1 I 1 1 I 1 ti fhi V I 1 tot i 4 1 b 11 aw 4 0 I 1 A r ta 10 4 4 V N 14 O 0 k fe f e AN EXAMPLE OF overgrazing ON LA SAL FOREST this is forest protection week throughout the united stales states few moves are so important so vital to the future of he the nation and particularly the west as is the move to protect our forests and mountains in the following article supervisor orange A olsen of the la sal national forest points out a few of the reasons why the public should be keenly interested in forest protection taking the la sal forest with which we are all ah familiar as an illustration sir mr olsen clearly shows that our mountain watersheds must be treated properly if we wish to avoid future catastrophe when we w peak speak of the leagh ot of i our mountain ranges we usually ret get I 1 i a mental picture of great mining operations erat ions we eee gee deep shafts into the earth from which millions I 1 1 of dollars worth of coal copper gold I 1 lead silver radium and oher other able minerals are annually brought I 1 out our mountains yield another substance a product duct more valuable I 1 than any of tEro these ese something we all use every day water copper most valuable min cral pre produce duces about in I 1 wealth every ear irrigated crops yield an annual income of over I 1 50 in addition to irrigating these vast crops water also supplies us with electricity water to drink I 1 and water to use for every industrial j p purpose rp ose water runs the state most of the water comes conies from the mount 1 tain in either directly or indeli indirectly erectly and will continue to come and give life fife and wealth long after the mines I 1 are worked out abandoned and for I 1 gotten for year years we gave this great resource our water supply little consideration we thought that as long as the mountains stood our water supply was assured abile it is true that the mountains will for ages continue to catch the winter snows and receive he the summer rains and this water ater will always flow from the mountain heights to the valleys be 1 low yet the usefulness of this water to the inhabitants inhabitant is greatly influx i priced iced by the way we treat these mountains and what grow grows upon them you ask how we mis misread reat and I 1 abuse these mountains our watersheds go into the hills and the high hith er elevations anywhere and yoa you will see ee the scars of abuse here and there the forests the gr grass ass and the braith have been burned everywhere the range ranges have been overgrazed and depleted of vegetation any sort of I 1 use or action which demoes the vegetative eta tive cover is injurious to watersheds fires and overgrazing are the oral coret ener riles to wate watershed hed tion the flood which caused the loss of nine liven lives and destroyed thousands of dollar dollars worth of property last year a recent bum burn in the head of the canyon the e flood at mt tit pleasant in 1919 wh which ic h drowned two persons and did so much damage to city property came from a badly overgrazed sheep range ut below belo the foreit forest boundary flood and executive erosion do 80 not occur on well vegetated areas the leave branches branc heg grass blade blades and plants prevent the rain from beating it does in the down on the roil soil an as the cover which they afford open delay delays the melting snow in the the upper tipper layer layers of the for soil act ai as a fm elit boll oil or vegetated sponge tha that t absorb absorbs large quantities quan tUle of water and in turn tui n passes it on to the creat great reservoir reer voir of mineral oil beneath from whence tt it slowly beep spring flow the vegetative out ut as rover binds the soil oil and check checki i rapid afy and erosion ero eion to desan y thin this cover means that after every there will wil I 1 be flood floods the eize size deper dent derit of f c cox ire upon the amount of rain rainfall fall the early settlers of moab valley state that when they came here in the SOS the adjacent cou country was covered with grass and vegetation fourteen thousand head of cat li ranged and battened fattened in n ard around salt valley alone pack creek was a mall small clear stream of water it could easily be jumped across floods from the mountains were unknown the only runoff came from the slick rock rocks east of town the good old das of clear water and plenty of brass lasted well into the DOS when the range became overstocked with both cattle and sheep the grass and palatable foods were vere depleted and vegetative cover being greatly fed reduced there was nothing to hold back the water and destructive floods resulted pack creek changed from a narrow stream bed to one of river proportions with gullied out blinks 10 to 30 feet deep this over stocking has not only killed out the ranges and reduced the carrying carr yint capacity many times but it has almost ruined the watershed the frequent floods have caused incalculable lisles losses two lives have been lost diversion dier sion dams washed out canals and ditches filled with ith rocks and debris an electric light plant lost crops destroyed and acres of good farming land converted into creek beds one once farmed famed ranches have bee been abandoned because the farmer famer could not afford to work for days and weeks to rebuild his ditches which might at any time be taken out with the first storm luride sums have been spent throughout the county to rebuild washed out roads and to replace bridge bridges if when the country mas a first bet set tied the watershed values had bad been understood and appreciated and the ranges judiciously used most of these huge losses could have been i eliminated under proper prope use se the watershed watter shed could hav hayt alzen t n tact and the ranges still auppl supplying g I 1 forage to man more cattle and sheep than can use them thein at the present prent time many utah canyon canyons are aling ice les son sons in watershed protection awen ty years ago manti canyon was 1 inous for its floods year after year the destructive floods came and some people were almost to give up their home homes and lands ande others conceded conce hed the idea of protecting the watershed wale and accordingly in 1904 the canyon wu was closed tu to brazing and the forest service regulated the cutt buttlar lar of urt tint ber bek in 1909 1009 when floods were common in the adjacent canyon mantl canyon wai was free from floods and bas been ever since the r cloudburst that truck struck farmington canyon and caused such appalling ap pallini losses last year also truck struck the city creek watershed which supplies aup lles salt lake with water city creek has been closed to all brids of razing grazing for twenty year years and Is now a canyon of crati flower erb and trees although the storm was a severe one the arrer creek rose but four inches and the water scarcely became rolley here we ae see startling evidences that the way aay we treat our mountains really does make a difference in the way the water comee comes down |