Roseburg Review

The following remarks clipped from a California paper apply with even greater force to Oregon, for here not alone the fertility of the soil, but our glorious climate itself is dependent upon preservation of the forests: "No one can ever foresee the consequences of a blunder. Many years ago, when lumbermen were sweeping the Adirondack mountains of New York of their trees to sell them for lumber, it was pointed out that the denudation of the hillsides would inevitably lead to a drying up of the water courses, and that tree-cutting ought to be regulated by law. No attention was paid to the warning. The mountains were laid bare, and the stumps in many cases were burned to complete the clearing. It is now discovered that the springs and streams which feed the Erie Canal and the Hudson river are running dry, and that if the present condition of things lasts, the canal will shoal so as to become useless for purposes of navigation. As a remedy it is proposed that the state buy the Adirondack mountain-sides from their owners, and replant them so as to woo the waters back to their original cradle.

"There is a lesson here which should not be thrown away by the people of this state. The lumberman is slowly but surely destroying the future prospects of California. Every hillside which is shaved bare to furnish firewood insures the conversion of some fertile field into a desert hereafter. We are all discussing schemes of irrigation by which arid plains are to be turned into gardens through the beneficent application of water; but simultaneously, we are doing our best to cut off our supply of water. If the lumberman is let alone, he will defeat the best-laid plan for irrigating the dry country, for he will leave no water to irrigate with. It is not alone the native lumberman who is engaged in the destructive work. Vast tracts of timber land have passed into the hands of Michigan and Wisconsin lumbermen, and they are preparing to cut down trees by the wholesale.

"A due regard for the future productiveness of the state should insist on the passage of a forestry law, limiting the extent of destruction to be allowed. A moderate thinning of the forests does no harm; indeed, it may be rather beneficial than otherwise; but no one should be allowed to denude the soil of all its forest covering, under which the soil fattens and springs bubble up in the shade. Such vandalism cannot be tolerated in any state which expects in the future to be able to raise food for the support of its people."