Read Ebook: Conservation Reader by Fairbanks Harold W Harold Wellman

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Ebook has 615 lines and 64920 words, and 13 pages

A single great forest spread over all the mountains and valleys of the eastern part of our country. Now you can travel for many miles in the more thickly settled portions of this region and see not a single tree of the original forest.

To the west of the forest came the prairies and plains. Still farther west came lofty mountains and desert valleys. On these Western mountains were other forests with trees of wonderful size.

This great natural park, with its long seacoasts, rivers, lakes, marshes, dense woods, and open plains, was a paradise for wild creatures of every description, and the Indian was contented to leave it so.

Grizzly and black bears roamed the thickets. Elk wandered through the mountains and valleys. Deer were abundant everywhere. The antelope raced over the plains, mountain goats and sheep lived among the rocks, and moose filled the Northern woods. Great herds of buffalo darkened the surface of the plains. When the first railroad was built across the plains, less than fifty years ago, the trains were sometimes stopped by herds of buffalo crossing the track.

Most of the songbirds that filled the country then are still with us, for they were of little commercial value to the hunter. No other land has richer bird music than ours. Many of the birds that are valuable for food are, however, nearly extinct. Now we have laws for their protection, but these laws went into effect too late to save some species. The passenger pigeon is one of our greatest losses.

The cutting down of the vast forests that once covered the Eastern states, and the cultivation of fields, has helped to drive many of the wild creatures away. We are just beginning to learn how poor our country would be if we lost them all. Refuges are being established in many places, where those birds and animals most in danger of extinction may live safe from the hunter.

The coast waters, lakes, and streams of our country were once alive with fish. The Indians made use of them, but their rude traps did not catch enough to affect the number seriously. We have fished with every kind of trap that the brightest fisherman could think of. Many important food fishes are now very much reduced in numbers. The fur seal and sea otter are so nearly gone that only the most watchful protection will save them from extinction.

The land, as the Indian knew it, was beautiful, and was filled with everything that one could wish. But the Indian did not know how to use it. He lived a poor life, suffering from cold and hunger.

We came into the possession of a land unspoiled by its primitive inhabitants. It was just as Nature made it. In a few short years we have almost exterminated the Indian. We have swept away a large part of the forests. We have almost destroyed many of the species of animals and birds. We have robbed the soil and injured the flow of the rivers. Some of this loss we could not help, for when many millions of people occupy a land there must be many changes. But for the losses that we have needlessly and carelessly caused we shall sometime be sorry.

Do you not think we are wise in seeking how to take better care of this land of ours?

IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS

Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss; Such love of the birds in the solitudes, Where the swift winds glance and the treetops toss; Spaces of silence swept with song, Which nobody hears but the God above; Spaces where myriad creatures throng, Sunning themselves in his guarding love.

Such safety and peace in the heart of the woods! Far from the city's dust and din, Where passion nor hate nor man intrudes, Nor fashion nor folly has entered in. Deeper than hunter's trail hath gone Glimmers the tarn where the wild deer drink; And fearless and free comes the gentle fawn, To peep at herself o'er the grassy brink.

Such pledges of love in the heart of the woods! For the Maker of all things keeps the feast, And over the tiny flowers broods With care that for ages has never ceased. If he cares for this, will he not for thee-- Thee, wherever thou art today? Child of an infinite Father, see; And safe in such gentlest keeping stay.

NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS

Pure, fresh air is free to all of us, for, like an ocean, it surrounds the whole earth. We need pure water just as much as we do pure air, but it is not always easy to get. A large part of the earth is buried beneath water so salt that we cannot use it. Other parts of the earth are so dry that if we venture into them we may die of thirst. The solid land on which we make our homes is not all of the same value. Thousands of square miles are so rocky or so cold or so dry that they support no living thing. Other thousands of miles of the earth have been so favored by Nature that they are fairly alive with every sort of creature.

We say that a country is rich in natural resources when it has an abundance of those things that men need or can make use of for their pleasure and comfort. A country is poor when it has few of these things.

The first men were poor, although they lived in a rich part of the earth. They did not know how to make use of what lay around them. If civilized men are poor now, it is because they have wasted Nature's gifts or because they live in a country upon which she has bestowed little.

When we say that the far North where the Eskimos live is a dreary, desolate region, we mean that it lacks most of those things necessary to make men comfortable and happy. When we read of the life of the wandering Arabs in the desert of Arabia, we think of a country to which Nature has not given its share.

When we speak of Spain as poor, we have in mind a country once favored by Nature, but no longer prosperous because its resources have been wasted. Our own land is now rich and prosperous because of the abundance of its natural resources. We should guard these well lest we meet a fate similar to that of the people of Spain.

If we journey over our own land, we shall discover that Nature has been very partial to certain parts, giving them more than they need. Other parts have been left with little. We shall also discover what wonderful things men are doing to make up for the failures of Nature, and to make habitable many of those places which she left uninhabitable.

The forests of the eastern half of the country have been thinned out. West of the Mississippi River there are thousands of square miles of prairies where there are almost no trees. In such places the first settlers had difficulty in getting firewood, and had to build their houses of earth or stone.

Upon the northwest coast there is fog and rain and little sunshine. There the forests grow so dense that it is difficult to travel through them. In the deserts of the Southwest the sun shines out of a cloudless sky almost every day in the year. The ground becomes very dry and the living things found there have strange and curious habits.

In the Central and Eastern states there is much coal; and because of this, millions of people have gathered there to engage in manufacturing. In California coal is scarce and has to be brought from other parts of the earth.

The vast prairies of the Mississippi Valley are covered with fields of waving grain, much of which is shipped to distant regions. In New England much of the soil is rocky and not enough grain is raised there to supply the needs of the population.

The work that people do in different places is determined by the way in which Nature has distributed her resources. The farmers are mostly found in the valleys where the soil is best. Cattle are pastured on those lands not suited to farming. The miners go to the mountains, where they can more easily find the minerals they are after. The lumberman finds his work where the climate favors the growth of forest trees. The manufacturer seeks the waterfalls, where there is power to turn his mills.

Now let us try to discover in how far we can change Nature's plan and make habitable those places which she left uninhabitable. There are some things which we cannot do. We cannot make the air warmer or colder. We cannot cause rain to fall even though the fields are parched with drought. We cannot stop the rain falling, and we cannot stop the winds blowing.

While we cannot stop the water falling from the clouds, we can drain the lowlands and marshes and so make them fit for the farmer. We can raise great dikes or embankments along the rivers and so shut out the flood waters. The people of Holland have saved thousands of acres from the sea by building dikes and pumping out the water from the inclosed fields.

While we cannot make it rain where not enough rain falls, we can do that which is just as good or better: we can carry water by ditches and pipes to the land that needs it. Much of the soil of the great deserts in the southwestern part of our country is rich in plant food. All that it lacks is water.

The Indian roamed over the rich lands of the great delta of the Colorado River. He often went hungry and thirsty. He did not think of taking the water out of the river in a ditch and allowing it to flow over and wet the rich soil. The white man came and turned the river out of its channel and spread the water over hundreds of square miles of the richest land on the earth. Now, where once you would have died of thirst and hunger, there are green fields and growing crops as far as you can see.

The city of Los Angeles is situated in a dry region where there is not water enough for the needs of a great city. There has now been completed a great aqueduct which brings a river of water through deserts and mountains from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, over two hundred miles away. There is now sufficient water for hundreds of thousands of people.

When it rains too much, many rivers rise and overflow their banks. The farmer's crops are destroyed, his cattle drowned, and his buildings washed away. We can lessen the danger from these floods, which are very bad in such river basins as those of the Ohio and Mississippi, by building reservoirs in the highlands where the rivers take their start. If when summer comes these rivers are too shallow for safe navigation, the reservoirs can be opened and the streams supplied with this stored water.

The lack of trees upon the prairies was once a serious matter for the settler. We must not think, however, that because Nature placed no trees on the prairies that trees will not grow there. She may not have had handy the seed of the kind suitable for such dry lands. Our government has found in the dry regions of other countries trees that will grow upon our prairies. In their own home these trees had become used to a dry climate like that of our prairies.

Steep ca?ons and cliffs of rock once kept people, living on the opposite sides of mountain ranges, from becoming acquainted with one another. Our ancestors were afraid to venture out on the boundless oceans with their small, frail boats. Because of this the continent that we live on long remained unknown. Those who first found it, the ancestors of the present Indians, came here by accident. Storms probably blew their boats across the North Pacific Ocean, and thus they found a new home. Now railroads enable us to cross the deserts in perfect comfort. Tunnels have been made through the mountains, so that we can go easily from one valley to another. Boats of giant size carry us safely and quickly across the stormy oceans. Nature did not intend us to fly through the air or swim beneath the water, but we are learning so much about her laws that we shall soon be almost as much at home in the air and the sea as the birds and fish are.

THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE

My squandered forests, hacked and hewed, Are gone; my rivers fail; My stricken hillsides, stark and nude, Stand shivering in the gale. Down to the sea my teeming soil In yellow torrents goes; The guerdon of the farmer's toil With each year lesser grows.

This is the story of a land of plenty that became almost a desert. Long ago there dwelt in this land a people wise in all the things that concerned their home. Through many hard years of toil and struggle they had learned to take the very best care of what Nature had given them. Although Nature seemed to them to be wasteful, she punished waste in her children. As long as they obeyed, they had comfortable homes, fertile fields, and sleek herds.

The country of which we are speaking was very beautiful. There were lofty mountains and broad, fertile valleys. Many streams, fed by clear, cool springs, flowed through the land. There were also green meadows and deep, dark forests.

The forests contained many wild animals, for in the forests the animals found both food and protection. Birds of every sort abounded, and their music filled the air. Trees overhung the streams, shading them from the hot sun, so that they did not dry up in the summer. The springs never failed, for the carpet of leaves and decaying vegetation underneath the trees of the forests held much of the rainwater from running away, so that it sank into the ground. Instead of making floods in the rivers, it fed the springs gradually and steadily through the long, dry summers.

The people of this land had learned the secrets of the growing plants and how these plants could be made better by cultivation. They had also learned to tame the wild animals and make them useful. The farms were managed with great care so that they never grew poor. The soil never refused to grow their crops. The people had learned during their earlier years of struggle that they must not clear the forests from the hillsides, for, if they did, the soil would begin to wash away. They had learned that they must leave the forests on the mountains in order to save the springs.

Rain did not always come when it was needed for the crops, and at other times it rained too much. Reservoirs were built to hold the surplus water for use in time of drought. Canals were dug to carry it to the fields.

The wild animals and birds bothered the crops, and the first thought of the people was to kill them. But it was soon discovered that this was not wise. Those who destroyed the wild creatures about their farms began to suffer from rats, mice, rabbits, and a multitude of little insects that all but devoured the crops.

It did not take these people long to learn that Nature was not to be trifled with. If they took too much from the earth one year, she made them pay for it the next. They not only became wise enough to take care of every good thing that Nature had given them, but improved upon many things that she had left unsuited to their use.

Thus the land was kept beautiful and fertile. The inhabitants became rich, and, instead of fearing Nature as they once did, they came to love the rocks, the woods, the streams, and the wild creatures.

Let us now leave this rich and fertile land and come back to it after hundreds of years have passed. We find a new people living there and the country so changed that we can hardly believe it is the same land.

Yet it must be the same, for there are the very mountains that were there long ago. To be sure, they do not look just as they did. When we last saw them they were covered with forests, but now they are barren and scarred with many gulches. Here is the same river, but it also looks different. While it was once overhung with trees and its waters were so clear that we could see the fish in the bottom, it now has a broad, sandy bed; the trees are gone, and the water is shallow and muddy.

The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and discouraged appearance. They have a hard struggle to get enough to eat. The soil is rocky, and it takes much labor to raise the scanty crops. They never seem able to gather all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes away and new ones are constantly uncovered.

Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in their stead only a few stunted trees and bushes. There is little grass and almost no flowers, even in spring. Sheep and cattle wander far for their forage and do not have the sleek appearance they once did.

There are few wild creatures of any sort, for since there are no woods there are few hiding places. Neither do we see any birds, and we listen in vain for a song or note of any kind.

The houses are made of mud or stone and look cold and cheerless. The people must suffer from cold in winter. The only wood they have is small brush which the women and children gather upon the far hills and bring home in huge bundles upon their backs.

In the towns of this country the only fuel now to be had is charcoal. This is brought upon the backs of burros from the distant mountains, where the few remaining trees give work to charcoal burners. The charcoal is peddled through the streets and sold in tiny quantities at each door. The people are too poor to buy much at a time and are very careful in its use. It is burned in a metal or earthen dish called a brazier, and a double handful may last a family a whole day.

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