waste.
A number of other Conservation measures were enacted into laws, 29 in
all, but I cannot touch upon them at this time.
We are proud of our success in inaugurating safe and sane policies for
Conservation; we are proud of our Governor, J. Y. Sanders, who urged the
passage of the various bills; we are proud of our lumbermen, timber
owners, gas and oil operators, and miners who recognized the need for
Conservation and the justness of our bills, and assisted in their
passage. And above all we are proud of our people as a whole, who are so
wide-awake on the question of Conservation of natural resources.
REPORT FROM MAINE
CYRUS C. BABB
_District Engineer Maine State Water-Storage Commission_
The two principal resources of the State of Maine are its forests and
its water-powers. Of its total area of 30,000 square miles, 21,000
square miles, or 70 percent are in forest lands. Over 1500 lakes and
ponds are located in the State, covering 2200 square miles of water
surface, and not including the innumerable little ponds of an acre or
two in area that are located in all directions. There are in the State
one lake to each 20 square miles of territory, and one square mile of
lake surface to each 14.3 square miles of territorial area.
Although the State ranks 35 in area, and 30 in population, it ranks
third in the Union in water-power development, having, according to the
U. S. Census, a total of over 343,000 horsepower in use. It is surpassed
only by New York and California in total horsepower.
The State has always conserved its water-power. The Supreme Judicial
Court of the State has held as follows:
It is a rule of law peculiar to this State and Massachusetts
under the Colonial Ordinance of 1641-7 that all great
ponds--that is ponds containing more than 10 acres--are owned
by the State.
While private property cannot be taken for public use without
compensation, the waters of great ponds and lakes are not
private property.
Under the ordinance, the State owns the ponds as public
property held in trust for public uses. It has not only the jus
privatum, the ownership of the soil, but also the jus publicum,
and the right to control and regulate the public uses to which
the ponds shall be applied.
The authority of the State to control waters of great ponds
and determine the uses to which they may be applied is a
governmental power, and the governmental powers of the State
are never lost by mere non-use.
_Early Investigation_
Maine has always been in the forefront in the investigation and
conservation of its resources. Thirty years before the National
Government authorized its first geological investigations, and over
forty years before the Federal Geological Survey was established, the
State of Maine had made such a survey. By Act of the State Legislature,
March 28, 1836, a geological survey of the State was authorized under
the direction of Dr Charles T. Jackson, State Geologist. The
investigation was continued for three years. The results of this
geological survey, considering the difficulties of transportation at
that time and the non-existence of accurate maps, are interesting.
A detail survey and report on the natural history and geology of the
State was made in 1861 and 1862 by Ezekiel Holmes, Naturalist, and C. H.
Hitchcock, Geologist. Reports were made on the zoology and botany of the
State, but the most interesting and detailed reports treated of the
geological resources.
A hydrographic survey of the State was authorized by the Legislature as
early as 1867. The resulting report of Mr Walter Wells is considered as
authority even to the present day.
_Present Organizations_
At the present time there are two organizations in this State working
along geological, topographic, and hydrographic lines. They are known as
the Maine State Survey Commission, and the Maine State Water-Storage
Commission. The first organization was authorized by Act of the State
Legislature March 16, 1899. Its powers were subsequently amended and
enlarged by an Act approved March 23, 1905. It is authorized to
cooperate with the U. S. Geological Survey, and its work includes the
topographic and geological surveys of the State.
The creation of the State Water-Storage Commission was authorized by Act
of the Legislature April 2, 1909. His Excellency, Governor Fernald, at
the Conference of Governors in May, 1908, was so impressed with the
importance of the objects and recommendations there brought forth that,
at the next meeting of the State Legislature, he advocated and finally
approved the Act creating said Commission. This Commission is directed
to collect information relating to the water-powers of the State, the
flow of rivers and their drainage area, the location, nature, and size
of the lakes and ponds in the State, and their respective value and
capacity as storage reservoirs, with a view to conserving and increasing
the capacity of the water-powers of the State. The Act further provides
that every person, firm, or corporation before commencing the erection
of a dam for the purpose of developing any water-power in the State, or
the creation or improvement of a storage reservoir, shall file with the
Commission certain prescribed engineering plans.
The first report of the Commission to the Legislature is asked to show,
in so far as time will allow, a comprehensive and practical plan for the
creation of such water-storage reservoirs as will tend to develop and
conserve the water-powers of the State, and to report the necessary
steps that should be taken by the State to further conserve and increase
them. The Commission is further requested to ascertain what lands can be
purchased by the State and the cost thereof, with information as to
their value as forest reserves or for conserving the water-powers of the
State, or for reforestation; and further to investigate the question of
denuded, burnt-over, or barren lands in the State, and their extent and
value, with a view to their purchase by the State for reforestation.
By an agreement dated December 1, 1909, between the Director of the U.
S. Geological Survey, the Chairman of the State Survey Commission and
the Chairman of the State Water-Storage Commission, the work of the
three organizations in the State is brought under one direction. This
agreement provides for a cooperative survey of the natural resources of
the State; that said survey shall include the continuation of
topographic mapping, a determination of the amount and availability of
water resources, their present development and the best methods of their
future utilization; also the further determination of geologic
resources. The executive officer, under the terms of this agreement, is
a duly appointed employee of the U. S. Geological Survey, with the title
of District Engineer.
_State Highway Department_
This department was authorized by legislative Act of 1907. The
appropriation for the work is based on a tax of 1/3 mill on the State
valuation. Provision is made in the law whereby the State will aid
financially, on a sliding scale, the various towns if they raise money
for highway construction purposes. On the average it may be said that
for every dollar appropriated by a town, the State will pay an
additional dollar. The law further provides for a limitation of the
amount that the towns may raise for this purpose, based on the valuation
of said town. The sliding scale of appropriation by the State is as
follows: to towns having a valuation of $200,000 or less, the State will
pay two dollars for each dollar appropriated by said towns; to each town
having a valuation of over $200,000 and less than $1,000,000, one dollar
for each dollar appropriated by said town; to towns having a valuation
of over $1,000,000 and less than $1,200,000, ninety-two cents; to towns
having a valuation of over $1,200,000 and not exceeding $1,400,000,
eighty-five cents; to towns having a valuation of over $1,400,000 and
not exceeding $1,600,000, eighty cents; to towns having a valuation of
$1,600,000 and over, seventy-five cents for each dollar appropriated by
the town; and to unincorporated townships, one dollar for each dollar
appropriated.
_State Forestry Department_
This department was created by legislative Act of 1891 through the
appointment of the State Land Agent as Forest Commissioner. This
Commissioner is directed to institute an inquiry and to report as to the
extent to which the forests of the State are being destroyed by fires
and by wasteful cuttings, and the effect of such action on the
watersheds of the lakes and rivers and on the water-powers of the State.
His principal duties, however, are the supervision and control of
measures for the prevention and extinguishment of forest fires in all
plantations and unorganized townships in the State. An efficient
fire-fighting organization is now in operation in the State under this
department, and during recent years valuable tracts of timber have been
saved that would otherwise have been destroyed.
_Other Organizations_
There are other departments and organizations that are doing very
valuable work in the preservation of the natural resources of the State
of Maine. Many pages could be written on their results but at present a
number of them will only be mentioned by name. Included in this list are
the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Game, Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics, State Board of Health, and
Department of Harbor and Tidal Waters.
REPORT FROM MASSACHUSETTS
FRANK WILLIAM RANE
_State Forester_
HENRY H. SPRAGUE
_Chairman Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board_
While we do not have an authorized Conservation Commission in
Massachusetts, we nevertheless have many wide-awake and active State
officials and commissions in charge of work which in the total answers
the same purpose to the Commonwealth.
Massachusetts is noted for her excellent roads, and she is constantly
enlarging the mileage. The Fish and Game Commission is perfecting our
laws and encouraging modern protection and management of both fish and
game. The propagation and dissemination of each is a large part of their
work.
General agriculture is undoubtedly improving and various rural
industries such as apple raising, cranberry growing, asparagus culture,
and various specialties are receiving renewed attention. The State
Agricultural College is growing in influence and value to the State.
The increasing population of the State has made it necessary to set
apart and protect many of the ponds and streams throughout the
Commonwealth for the purpose of water supply. During the past fifteen
years the Commonwealth has expended more than $41,000,000 for the
acquisition and construction of Metropolitan works in order to provide
the city of Boston and surrounding municipalities with water. One of the
storage reservoirs constructed for the "Metropolitan District" is the
largest reservoir in the world built up to the present time for the
purpose of providing domestic water supply. Large sums have been spent
not only for the direct protection of the reservoirs from pollution, but
also in acquiring and improving large marginal areas of woodland, and in
the planting with trees of many hundreds of acres of cleared lands which
have been acquired. Cities and towns outside of the Metropolitan
District have made and are making like provisions for obtaining and
preserving their water supplies.
Under recent legislation the gradual metering of all water services in
the Metropolitan District is required, and more vigorous inspection has
been introduced; so that in the past year or two a material reduction in
the total consumption has been effected notwithstanding the increasing
number of water takers.
In the building of the great Wachusett reservoir for the Metropolitan
Water-works provision has been made for the utilization of the power
which may be generated by the fall of the water over the dam to the
level of the aqueduct through which the water is conveyed into the
Metropolitan District. Machinery for a power plant is about to be
installed in the power house already erected, by which it is estimated
that from 2500 to 3000 horsepower may be generated and disposed of, not
only at a profit to the District, but also to the advantage of the local
industries.
While the State has permitted the taking, for the benefit of the
municipalities, of the necessary sources of water supply by the exercise
of the power of eminent domain, it has adopted the policy of compelling
the husbanding of the waters by the prevention of unnecessary and
wasteful consumption, and of utilizing the power generated by water
works for the benefit alike of the works of the mechanical industries of
the Commonwealth.
For conserving forest, park, and shade trees, Massachusetts has
undertaken the great task of suppressing the ravages of the gypsy and
browntail moths. This work has now extended over a period of years, and
eminent entomologists concede that nothing equal to this undertaking has
ever before been attempted. As many as 2700 men at one time have been
employed by the State in this work. Massachusetts has spent millions of
dollars in the work, and it is not only a protection to our own people
but equally prevents the dissemination of these pests to other States.
Parasites have been collected and introduced from foreign countries, and
everything possible undertaken to assist in the work. Our improved
high-power spraying machines with new and improved devices for
destroying these insects will undoubtedly prove of great value in future
spraying undertakings throughout the Nation.
The forestry work meets with continued whole-hearted support at the
hands of our people. The work of reforestation is becoming more popular
each year, and great good is bound to result therefrom. Our forest fire
laws are proving to be workable and hence practical. The poorer towns
are receiving State aid in the purchase of fire-fighting equipment, and
the wealthier towns are equipping themselves. The past year, as
heretofore, the Legislature has been inclined to assist the State
Forester in his various endeavors.
REPORT FROM MISSOURI
HERMANN VON SCHRENK
_Chairman Missouri State Forest Commission_
The Forest Commission of the State of Missouri was appointed a year ago
for the purpose of making recommendations to the Governor concerning a
future forestry policy for the State.
The Commission, after a thorough study of the conditions prevailing in
the State, prepared a report to the Governor, the principal feature of
which was the recommendation that a State Forest Board be established
with a State Forester. In submitting its report to the Governor, the
Commission suggested a bill, modeled after what appeared to be the best
laws already in force in other States. The Commission called particular
attention to the necessity for establishing fire guards and doing
educational work among the people of the State. The report and the bill
were sent to the Legislature by the Governor with a strong
recommendation that the bill be passed. Owing to the enormous amount of
other business on hand and the lateness in the year, the Legislature
did not have time to fully consider the bill, and it will come up again
at the next session.
The Commission has investigated the forest resources of the State in a
general way, and feels that there is a large field for the work of
perpetuating forests, especially in some parts of the State where the
land is more or less unfit for agricultural purposes. The Commission has
furthermore planned the organization of a State Conservation
Association, this to be organized sometime this fall along lines similar
to those of Associations already existing in many States.
While the Conservation work of this State is as yet in its infancy, the
general interest awakened is very large, and the Commission anticipates
large practical results during the coming year.
REPORT FROM MONTANA
RUDOLPH VON TOBEL
_Chairman Montana State Conservation Commission_
Probably none of the Governors of States who attended the Conference of
Governors called by President Roosevelt in May, 1908, returned to their
constituents more thoroughly imbued with the principles of Conservation,
or more fully determined to put those principles into practice in this
State, than Governor Norris, of Montana. Almost immediately, acting on
the suggestion of Governor Folk at the Conference, he appointed a
Forestry Commission, consisting of Judge Lew A. Callaway, of Virginia
City, Ex-Governor Robert B. Smith, of Kalispell, and Ex-Senator Paris
Gibson, of Great Falls.
It soon became apparent to Governor Norris, in view of the most
unsatisfactory condition of the land laws of the State, that there was
work along the lines of Conservation of a broader scope than was
comprehended in the plans laid down for the Forestry Commission, and he
appointed what was known as the State Lands Commission, which was
expected to draft a bill covering all State lands, except timber lands,
to present to the Legislature. This Commission consisted of Honorable
David Hilger, of Lewistown, Ex-Governor B. F. White, of Dillon, and
Honorable Charles S. Hartman, of Bozeman. Subsequently, Mr E. M.
Brandagee, of Helena, was appointed to fill the vacancy on the Forestry
Commission caused by the death of Ex-Governor Smith, and Mr Rudolf von
Tobel, of Lewistown, was appointed on the Land Commission to fill the
vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr Hartman.
After several meetings had been held by each of these Commissions, it
was found impracticable to separate the work of the two without
duplicating much of it and causing some conflict; so the two were
consolidated, and thereafter worked together in the preparation of a
bill covering the entire land holdings of the State to present to the
Legislature. Such a bill was prepared, submitted, and passed by the
Legislature, and approved by the Governor, March 19, 1909, and is now
the law of the State.
This Act places all State lands under the control of the State Board of
Land Commissioners, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State,
Attorney General, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. It provides
for the appointment of a Register of the State Land Office, a State Land
Agent, a State Forester, and other minor officials. The duties of the
Register are to attend to the sale of lands, and he is the chief of the
office. The State Land Agent's duties are, generally, to examine all
lands in the field; and the State Forester has general charge of the
timber lands of the State.
The Act further provides that no timber land shall ever be sold, except
only such as, after being cleared, would be more valuable as
agricultural land, than it would be for the growing of timber; and that
only the merchantable timber in the forests of the State shall be sold
from time to time. It also provides for the reforestation of the lands
as occasion may require. The State Forester is made the general Fire
Warden of the State, and the Deputy Forester, all peace officers, and
the Game Wardens, are made Deputy Fire Wardens, charged with the duty of
protecting the forests of the State, all being liable to forfeiture of
office for neglect.
The Act provides for prohibiting the sale of lands known to be coal
lands, and provides that mines may be opened in the coal lands of the
State and worked on the royalty basis, the minimum royalty being fixed
at ten cents per ton; it provides that every patent issued for State
lands shall reserve to the State the coal, oil, gas, and other minerals
contained therein, with the right to enter upon the land and extract the
same: thus reserving to the State all coal and other minerals in State
lands, whether the same are known at the present time to exist or not.
It also provides for the location of water-rights by the State for
irrigation of State lands and provides for the location of mining claims
on State lands in practically the same manner as it provided for the
location of such claims under the Federal Statutes.
This, in brief, is an outline of the work accomplished by the
Commission.
Owing to the facts that the timber lands of the State are not in one
compact body and that large tracts of timber land lying adjacent to the
State forests are owned by private parties and corporations, the
experiences of the past summer in fighting forest fires, has
demonstrated that all owners are not equally interested in preventing
the destruction of the timber upon their lands; at any rate that they
are not equally willing to pay the expense of preserving it. It was
found that while some few corporations, owning large tracts of timber
land, furnished their quota of men and money to protect their interests,
by far the larger number either declined or neglected to furnish either,
throwing upon the State the burden of protecting the timber of private
owners in order to protect State property; and it is the intention of
the Commission to recommend and urge upon the Legislature the passage of
an Act requiring private owners of timber land to protect their forests,
and in case of their failure or neglect to do so, authorizing the State
to do so and to charge the expense thereof to the land.
Inasmuch as the State has a large quantity of timber land within the
National forests which is unsurveyed, and which if surveyed would be
school sections, but which the Secretary of the Interior has decided
belongs to the National Government until surveyed, the State derives no
benefit whatever from the land and will not derive any until the same
has been officially surveyed. The Commission proposes to recommend the
passage of an Act ceding to the Federal Government all of the lands
within the National Forests which would be school section, upon Congress
granting to the State a like area of equally good timber land, in one or
more compact bodies so located that the State can obtain some benefit
therefrom. This method of handling the matter, I understand, was
favorably considered by Mr Pinchot while in office, and also by
President Taft.
The Commission also has in mind the preparation of a bill looking to the
conservation of the waters of the State. While Montana has many valuable
water-powers, most of which are still undeveloped, the principal use of
water in the State is, and always must be, for the irrigation of the
land; nevertheless, much of the water of the State is available for
power purposes which could not be made available for irrigation. Under a
long line of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States,
beginning with the case of Martin vs. Waddell (16 Peters, 367) decided
by Chief Justice Taney in 1842, down to the case of Kansas vs. Colorado
(206, U. S.), the beds of all navigable streams below high-water mark,
together with the waters flowing over them, belong absolutely to the
State, subject only to the right of Congress to regulate commerce, and
are subject to State control. On the other hand, the land bordering upon
such streams all belonged to the general Government originally, and in
many places available for power sites the lands bordering on the streams
still belong to the General Government. In order to develop these power
sites the work must be undertaken by both State and Nation, or by their
joint consent; and it is hoped that some legislation may be secured in
the State and in Congress regulating this joint control. Much has been
said and written in regard to the compensation due the Government,
either State or Nation, from the owners of developed power sites such as
we have in Montana; but the Montana Commission is more interested in the
power to regulate rates than in the power to exact compensation for the
use of the waters, for the reason that all compensation paid to the
Government must eventually come from the consumer, and in any event
would be comparatively small, while the regulation of rates to the
consumer is the only power necessary to complete control and the
prevention of monopoly--although it is believed that some compensation
should be exacted. Such legislation would eventually conserve the
undeveloped water-powers of the State, but other questions arise as to
those sites which have already been developed.
There are four dams across the Missouri river in Montana, either
completed or in process of construction, each of which utilizes, or is
intended to utilize, the entire flow of the river. All of these powers
were developed under special Acts of Congress passed after Montana
became a State; but in no case was the consent of the State obtained, or
even sought. The Commission has not yet decided whether it will attempt
to bring these developed powers under State control or not, and of
course has not devised any method of doing so (in case it should be
deemed advisable to attempt it), although individual members of the
Commission--including the writer--have expressed themselves as
decidedly of the opinion that the owners of these developed powers, not
having obtained any consent from the State for the construction of their
dams or for the use of the water, may be brought under State control.
The Montana Commission looks upon this water conservation as its main
work for the immediate future.
On the whole, the Commission feels that it has already accomplished
considerable in the way of practical Conservation, but that there is
much more to be done, some of which it hopes to be able to accomplish at
the coming session of the Legislature during the first of the coming
year.
REPORT FROM NEW MEXICO
COLONEL W. A. FLEMING JONES
I come from a Territory that for sixty years has been knocking at the
doors of Congress, seeking admission to the sisterhood of States. The
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that our Territory should be
admitted to Statehood "at the proper time" (which was to be judged by
the Congress of the United States), and to the enjoyment of all the
rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of
the Constitution. The implied requisites for admission are population,
taxable wealth, and the desire of Statehood. All of these we have in
abundance, including a population that exceeds by far that of any of the
States at the time of their admission, with the single exception of
Oklahoma, and something that is by no means generally known is the fact
that our Territory has fewer foreign-born citizens per thousand than any
State in the Union. However, the present Congress has enacted
legislation under which we may be admitted, and our Constitutional
Convention is now in session, framing a fundamental law that I am sure
will meet with the approval of Congress and the President. But for the
fact that the best brains of our Commonwealth are engaged in the work of
framing this Constitution, a much larger representation would have been
present here.
New Mexico is proud of what she has done in the cause of Conservation.
The Act of the Thirty-eighth Legislative Assembly creating our
Conservation Commission is broad in its scope and is a model for those
States which have not enacted any such legislation.
I hope to attend the Third National Conservation Congress, not from a
Territory whose people are wards of the Government and not considered
capable of the management of their own affairs, but as the
representative of the Great State of New Mexico, the forty-seventh star
in our flag.
REPORT FROM NEW YORK
J. S. WHIPPLE
_Chairman State Forest, Fish and Game Commission_
New York may well be called the Empire State because of its great
population, its railways, canals, navigable rivers, agricultural
development, and diversified industries. It also has within its
boundaries vast forests that give it an important place among the States
of the Union in regard to woodland products, fish, and game.
No statement regarding the Conservation question in New York would be
complete without first referring to a few of its assets and their
stupendous value. Those to which I refer will readily indicate the
importance of New York as a field for the protection, development, and
use of natural resources.
The State has an area of 50,203 square miles, or 32,129,920 acres. Of
this great territory 27 percent is occupied by forests, a proportion
nearly the same as that of the forest area of Germany. There is standing
in New York about 41,500,000,000 board feet of timber; the output of our
forests last year was 1,064,000,000 board feet. There are 2,308
saw-mills. The value of our forest product in 1907 at the mill was
$24,000,000. In the manufacture of wood pulp New York leads all other
States. Last year 245,000,000 board feet of domestic logs were used for
pulp, and that was only about 20 percent of the total amount used. New
York also leads in the number of paper-mills. It has approximately 170
establishments for the manufacture of paper. The paper and wood-pulp
industry is represented by a capital investment of about $57,000,000.
New York's vast wilderness contains much large game. Over 6,000 deer and
100 bear are killed each hunting season. The annual commercial value of
fur and game animals and game birds approximates $750,000. We rank
third as a fish-producing State; the products of all species, including
shell-fish, amounts to about $40,000,000 annually, the annual shell-fish
product being valued at about $12,000,000.
The Adirondack Park contains 3,313,564 acres, the Catskill Park 576,120
acres, and 1,641,526 acres of land are owned by the State, of which
one-third is virgin forest or that which is now equally good. Twelve
large rivers wholly within the State have their source in the
Adirondacks. The course of each is marked at frequent intervals by falls
or rapids, and they, with others outside of the Adirondacks (excluding
the Niagara and Saint Lawrence), have a natural horsepower already
developed of 630,000; they are capable of furnishing at least 1,500,000
horsepower. This estimate would indicate that there is still 880,000
horsepower running into the sea wasted. It has been estimated that New
York State would derive a revenue of over $15,000,000 annually from its
fully developed water-power if controlled and sold by the State. Besides
the Adirondack rivers there are the Delaware, Susquehanna, Chemung,
Alleghany, Esopus, Genesee, and many other rivers of great value.
New York has over 500 miles of canals, or about 25 percent of the total
canal mileage of the United States, over which there are transported
annually some 3,500,000 tons of freight. Mineral production is
considerable. The mining of iron ore is a well developed industry. One
of the largest known iron ore deposits in the world is located in the
Adirondack wilderness. Gas, oil, garnet, graphite and many other mineral
products are marketed annually to an amount over $5,000,000.
Only three other States yield a greater total value of agricultural
products. New York ranks first in average value of production per acre.
One-ninth of the hay and forage of this country are raised in New York,
and the animal industries are of enormous value. Our hay-producing acres
are worth $93,000,000. New York has 226,720 farms with an aggregate area
of 9,522,000 acres, valued at $1,070,000,000, furnishing employment for
373,650 persons. The annual product of these farms is worth
$345,000,000. New York has 30 acres of tree nurseries capable of
producing 12,000,000 trees annually, and will double that acreage during
the next year. We have taken the lead in the establishment of tree
nurseries, in planting, and general work of tree propagation.
_Work Accomplished_
These are some of the factors which make Conservation of natural
resources in New York State very important. The work is being carried on
by various State Departments rather than by any single commission.
Governor Charles E. Hughes, and the Departments under him, gave great
impetus to the work during his term as Governor. Besides $101,000,000
authorized for canal improvement and $55,000,000 for good roads, over
$2,000,000 is expended each year by the State in Conservation work as
represented by the activities of the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission,
the Agricultural Department, and the State Water Supply Commission.
All sections of the State have been awakened, and active steps are being
taken in every direction. New York was first to achieve an onward
movement in the preservation of its natural resources when in 1885 it
led the way in the establishment of State Forest Preserves, and
inaugurated the policy of protecting her forests for the health and
recreation of the people and the protection of water sources. The same
leadership has been continued in control of water by statute creating
the State Water Supply Commission in 1905 and vesting it with
jurisdiction over the water supply of the State.
_Water_
Water is now recognized as one of the most valuable economic resources
of the earth, and the importance of measures for public control to
secure full benefit of hydraulic resources to the people is being
realized very rapidly as the great educational propaganda now carried on
in New York progresses. The powers of the Water Supply Commission extend
to the progressive development of water-powers of the State for the
public use under State ownership and control. It also has the power of
improving, straightening, and dredging the channel of any water course
of which the irregular flow is shown to be detrimental to public health
and safety. Four great reservoir projects have been located and
surveyed; many other propositions have been tentatively examined, so
that all water storage possibilities of the State are approximately
known.
I want to say just a word about the granting of franchises, especially
in respect to water-power rights in perpetuity. We have become so
accustomed to the idea of a non-controllable ownership of our natural
resources that even our agents in the Legislature have seemed at times
not to fully appreciate the importance of State control and the rights
of the people at large. No agent of the people has any moral right, nor
have the people themselves, to bind by water rights in perpetuity future
generations who will have their own problems to solve and their own
lives to live. It is therefore of first importance to understand our
relationship as trustees toward these public resources. Are they ours to
do with as we please, to use or waste as we see fit, or are they ours to
use to the best advantage and with the least waste; and is it our duty
to pass them on unimpaired, improved if possible, for those who are to
follow us? It is self-evident that this world was not made for us alone.
After us countless millions will come and go. Could it have been
intended that during our temporary occupancy we should have such a
complete control of God's gifts to Man that we, by our own act or
legislative will, could determine for all time how these blessings might
be used or enjoyed? We may give them away, we may deprive the people of
their rights in them; but when on the one hand a road leads to safety
and on the other a way to danger, there should be no hesitation about
which we should take. New York has improved on its old policies, which
can best be illustrated by an extract from an address by Governor
Hughes:
"Water-power privileges have been granted in the past without any
provision for a payment to the State in return for what the State gives.
These grants have frequently been made without proper reservations or
conditions and without anything constituting a suitable consideration.
They have amounted simply to donations of public rights for private
benefit. It does not fetter individual enterprise to insist upon
protection of the common interest and due payment for what is obtained
from the public. Last year on the grant of a franchise to a development
company which was to develop power from Saint Lawrence river it was
insisted that provision should be made for compensation for the
privilege upon a sliding scale according to the power developed. And
thus it was established that hereafter in the State of New York public
privileges, on terms of justice to the investors and the public alike,
must be paid for."
_Proposed Legislation_
Last year a measure prepared for the purpose of relieving the tax burden
on reforested land was presented to the Legislature, but it failed of
passage. This effort will be renewed until the much desired result is
obtained. Timber should be treated as a crop and taxed when cut. Timber
owners and tree planters should be encouraged to conserve and plant by
making the carrying charges less, that better management may be had and
more planting done.
The leasing of camp-sites on State land, the building of good roads
through the Forest Preserve, and the removal of dead and down timber
were all submitted in the shape of constitutional amendments, but the
Legislature also failed to sanction these propositions. The public mind
is not yet ready for complete and comprehensive Conservation in New
York, to have which requires a change in our Constitution. The need is
urgent, but, I regret to say, not fully appreciated.
_Agriculture_
The Agricultural Department is performing a splendid work in soil
Conservation. It assists in the preservation and protection of trees and
in planting work, as well as the fostering of farm crops and the
husbandry of meat products. The College of Agriculture is devoted to the
cultivation of intelligent and scientific methods in all branches of
crop production. Fertilization of the soil, destruction of injurious
agents, and new methods of intensive farming, are all taken up in the
various branches of the Department. In the State College of Agriculture
there were enrolled last winter nearly 1000 students. We have two
experiment stations with over fifty scientific men on their staffs. We
have three lower-grade agricultural schools, and the State is conducting
farmers' institutes, which have held more than a thousand sessions in
the past season.
_Forests_
All the foregoing endeavors are closely related to the continued life of
our forests, and in many respects are dependent on them. A producing
soil we must always have, or life of all kinds will become extinct.
Without a fairly regular supply of water a producing soil is
impossible; producing farm land is impossible. Hence if our water
sources do not perform their natural functions, we cannot get along very
well. The absence of forests in a mountainous State like New York will
prevent a regular flowing water supply, necessary to the demands of good
soil productivity; therefore, forests very largely hold the key to the
whole Conservation situation as it bears on the life, health, and
general welfare of the people of New York State. The question of timber
supply, water-power, health resorts, and atmospherical conditions, as
affected by the forests, are matters of secondary consideration in view
of the indirect but vital influence forests have on our soil production.
Neither soil nor water can be totally destroyed. They may become
impaired and unavailable on account of irregularity in rainfall, but to
some degree they will always perform their natural services for mankind.
The forests, however, might suffer total obliteration as they have in
many sections of the Orient and Occident. Wherever this calamity has
occurred, we find soil and water have reached their minimum of
usefulness. While we could not exist without water or soil, that does
not mean that they are the most important subjects for Conservation in
my State. The question of having to exist without them is entirely
eliminated; they will always be there in some degree of efficiency or
inefficiency. They will always be with us in their efficient state if we
exercise reasonable care in the use of our forests. On the other hand,
it is within the scope of possibility that our forests might be
destroyed to all practicable purposes, and history points out that soil
and water supply would then be of slight utility in a mountainous
country. The forest is the controlling resource, like the governor of an
engine without which the engine would destroy itself. Hence forests in
New York State by their influence upon soil and water flow occupy the
position of first importance among our natural resources to be
conserved.
The waste of our forests has been appalling, both by lumbering and
conflagration. The great "burns" found through all our mountains furnish
striking evidence of gross carelessness and indifference to the value of
this great resource. It is time that these acts of colossal folly were
stopped. Supreme selfishness on the one hand and deadly indifference on
the other are at the root of it all. Some people do not understand the
great danger of total forest destruction threatening certain of our
watersheds. It takes 50 to 100 years to grow a mature tree. The average
soil may increase about one inch in a century. It requires soil to grow
trees, and fire, the great enemy of the forest, destroys not only the
trees but the soil as well. On two or three occasions in the past seven
years the Adirondack Park has come dangerously near being wiped out by
fire. Rain alone has saved it. In 1903 and again in 1908 several large
fires burning at the same time threatened to unite and destroy the
entire park. No human agency can combat successfully a great forest
conflagration when once it is under way. In 1908, 177,000 acres of land
was burned over in New York State; the loss approximated $644,000. In
1903, 500,500 acres were burned, and the loss was more than $1,000,000.
Loss of soil and reproduction was not considered in the estimated loss
and never is.
It is logically evident from the history of forest fires that prevention
is the right objective in seeking to remedy this great evil. Methods of
protection after fire starts will fail when certain commonly occurring
weather conditions prevail. In New York we have devised an effective
forest fire-fighting organization, based on the principles of
prevention. The Adirondack and Catskill sections have been divided into
four districts, three in the Adirondacks and one in the Catskills. A
superintendent was appointed to take charge of each district. Under him
there were assigned regular patrolmen and special patrolmen, and to a
certain extent the superintendent cooperates with supervisors of towns.
The aggregate number of men engaged in this work this year is 356. In
addition to this the supervisors in every town in the State of New York
are responsible personally for damages caused by forest fires in their
respective towns, if they are negligent in putting them out.
I met the Boards of Supervisors of the various forest preserve counties
and discussed with them ways and means of fighting fire, explaining the
law and showing their responsibility. This action was followed by good
results. The superintendents were in turn assembled at Albany, and
properly instructed as to their duties and the relationships to be
carried on between their subordinates and themselves. Twenty observation
stations were erected on high points, and equipped with strong field
glasses, range finders, maps, and telephones. The whole territory has
been covered with telephone lines. These stations have proved an
incalculable benefit in the apprehension of fires when they are in an
incipient state. We have also added to the fire-fighting apparatus
portable fire extinguishers. These are very useful in checking a fire
at the beginning. Old trails and tote roads are kept clear of
obstructions to make the woods more accessible. The whole system is
chiefly valuable in that it is based on the fundamental principles of
early discovery, immediate alarm, and prompt action. Over 250 fires were
discovered and extinguished last year so quickly that they attracted no
public notice, and the damage done was unappreciable.
Another step was taken by the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission when the
question of oil-burning locomotives running through the Forest Preserve
was called to the attention of the Public Service Commission. After an
exhaustive investigation, oil as fuel was substituted for coal by order
of the Public Service Board. This order required that the railroads
should install oil-burning engines for use between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
from April 15 to November 1 each year, all engines to be inspected by
representatives of the Commission. Coal-burning locomotives still run
through the Forest Preserve at night which, on account of the heavy dew,
it is thought in most seasons does not materially increase the fire
risk; but it is doubtful whether in an extremely dry season coal-burning
locomotives would not set fires at night as readily as they do during
the day time. The partially restricted use of coal as fuel was the best
change obtainable at the time the order was promulgated.
The third factor contributing to reduce fire danger was the provision of
the new law requiring the lopping of tops of all coniferous trees felled
in the forest preserve. The value of this provision is realized when it
is understood that the tops of trees felled a decade ago, when not
lopped, are still ready to burn, while the debris of lopped trees
disappears entirely as a fire menace in the same period of time because
they lie flat on the ground, absorb moisture and rapidly decay.
Scenic assets have a tangible value. Figures have been adduced showing
that $200,000 was paid in fares to Niagara Falls to the New York Central
Railroad in three months. The visitors to the Adirondacks leave nearly
$8,000,000 behind them each season. These figures seem to suggest the
culture of the esthetic, as that side of the problem is very
remunerative. There ought to be as much attention paid to the
acquirement and preservation of places of natural beauty, public
usefulness, and historic interest, for the full enjoyment and use of all
the people, as there is for the preservation of natural resources that
have only a commercial value. To this end the people of the State of New
York and New Jersey have established an interstate park, and by
statutory enactment preserved for all time the picturesque and
historical palisades of the Hudson, and many acres of woodland. To this
end Mrs Harriman gave 10,000 acres of wild wooded land and $1,000,000 to
the State last winter, to which the State of New York added by bond
issue $2,000,000 for the enlargement of the interstate park. By statute
also about 53 square miles of the historic Highlands of the Hudson south
of West Point have been saved and set aside for park and forestry
purposes. Watkins Glen, a beautiful part of Schuyler County near Seneca
Lake, has been purchased by the State, and its scenic beauty preserved.
A reservation has been established in the Thousand Islands of Saint
Lawrence river and one at Niagara Falls preserving these beautiful
places to the people for all time. Without such places pleasant to the
eye and conducive to health, a numerous portion of the race thus
deprived of opportunity for exercise, for recreation, and the quiet
enjoyment of nature's great gifts of beauty that have existed for the
full and untrammeled benefit of former generations, we must become a
nation of human derelicts rather than a nation of healthy-bodied men and
women. We must have these resources to keep up the physical standard of
men and women, and more so in the future than in the present because
conditions of living are changing rapidly in America. In 1800 only 3
percent of the people dwelt in the cities or large towns; in 1900 more
than 33 percent lived amid urban conditions.
President Roosevelt never said a more striking thing than when he gave
as the definition of civilization something to this effect: "The prime
difference between a civilized and an uncivilized people is that
civilized man looks beyond his own immediate needs, and even beyond
those of his lifetime, and provides for generations yet unborn."
In considering the principles of Conservation, development comes first,
using and improving the natural resources of our country for the benefit
of the people. The second principle is the prevention of waste.
Conservation comprehends the substitution as far as possible of
materials for those that are exhaustible. Conservation reaches out into
a wide field, and, as often said, it means the "greatest good to the
greatest number for the longest time." Conservation advocates the use of
foresight, prudence, thrift, and intelligence in dealing with public
matters. It means the application of common sense to our public
affairs. Conservation guarantees progress, efficiency, supremacy,
perpetuity, the life of the Nation. There is no interest of the public
to which the principles of Conservation do not apply.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM NEW YORK--WATER RESOURCES OF THE STATE
HENRY H. PERSONS
_President State Water Supply Commission_
The people of the State of New York have a deep natural interest in the
important economic problems now brought so forcibly to the attention of
the American people through the Conservation movement. That interest is
properly manifested at this time because, in all probability, no other
State in the Union is invested with conditions so favorable and
opportunities so promising for the early accomplishment of material
progress in the practical conservation of one of its most valuable
natural resources. In New York State the surface water supply as a
natural resource is second in value only to the land itself, which
indeed owes its value largely to the existence of an abundant natural
water supply. It must be conceded that the value of water for potable
and domestic purposes cannot be estimated in dollars and cents,
constituting as it does a necessity of life for which no substitute
exists. Its money value is represented by whatever it costs to obtain
the supply, be that much or little.
Aside from any such consideration as this, water is practically the only
natural resource within the State of New York for the development of
power, that great and fundamental requisite to the prosperity and
comfort of a civilized community. The State does not have enough coal of
its own to operate its existing iron mines, to say nothing of mining the
whole of the valuable deposit, estimated at 300,000,000 tons. This
condition is compensated for in a large measure if not altogether by the
fact that, in addition to the existence of an abundance of water, the
profiles of the streams and the general topography of a large portion of
the State are naturally favorable for the establishment of hydraulic
power developments and the construction of storage reservoirs for the
regulation of the flow of the streams.
The State has taken a notable step forward by assuming certain
regulative powers over the disposition of these resources, and by the
institution of a systematic inventory of them to determine the extent
not only of the supply but of existing developments and present uses,
and the possibilities for additional uses and new developments. It has
also made extensive studies to determine the possibilities for water
storage, the necessary complement to extensive power developments within
the State.
_Development of Water Conservation as a State Policy_
A brief statement of the most important historical facts leading up to
and determining the present status of water conservation within the
State seems pertinent, and will doubtless be of assistance in furnishing
a clear prospectus of the controlling conditions and the complicated
problems involved in the formulation of a comprehensive and practicable
plan for the regulation of these waters.
In 1902 a special Act of the Legislature created the Water Storage
Commission. That Commission was directed to make surveys and
investigations to determine the causes of the overflow of the various
rivers and water courses of the State, and to determine what, if
anything, could be done to prevent such overflow. The serious nature and
wide extent of the floods occurring at more or less frequent intervals
in a large number of streams throughout the State had long been a source
of anxiety to the residents of the flooded districts owing to the
injuries and dangers occasioned by the sudden overflow.
The failure to take proper measures of a corrective nature earlier was
not due in any sense to a lack of interest, intelligence, or energy on
the part of the citizens of the State. The interest was usually
localized, owing to the fact that ordinarily the entire State does not
suffer from floods at the same time, so that while small communities had
made some attempts to secure relief there had been no State-wide
movement or concerted action in that direction. Several obstacles
usually rendered individual and local remedies comparatively difficult
and ineffective. The complexity of the hydrographic problems usually
involved in a study of flood conditions, together with the expense
incident to a technical investigation to determine the causes and means
of relief, constitute one of these obstacles. Small municipalities
cannot usually see their way clear to employ a hydraulic engineer to
investigate such problems, and conclusions arrived at, or remedies
applied without such a study are likely to result in an unsatisfactory
manner. Furthermore, the proper remedies, when ascertained, usually
require for their execution the acquisition of land and water rights
which individuals or minor municipalities have no power to condemn.
Another obstacle arises from the fact that the distribution of the
burden of expense for any particular improvement can scarcely be made
equitably, or the payment of the amount enforced by any means other than
the power of assessment.
These were the conditions which led up to the demand for a State
investigation and the creation of the State Water Storage Commission.
That Commission, after about a year's investigation and research with a
remarkably small appropriation at their disposal, submitted to the
Legislature an extremely valuable and comprehensive report on the flood
conditions of the principal streams of the State. The report pointed out
that storage reservoirs constituted the only practicable solution of the
problem in the majority of instances, and recommended the construction
of several such reservoirs at points where conditions were known to be
favorable. Having submitted its report, the Water Storage Commission
automatically ceased to exist.
The next step in the development of the water-storage movement was the
creation of the River Improvement Commission by act of the Legislature
in 1904. The creation of that Commission was the only practical outcome
of the valuable report on the causes and remedies of floods in New York
rivers made by the Water Storage Commission in 1903. The River
Improvement Commission was invested with power to make preliminary
investigations, plans, and surveys for the regulation of the course of
any stream, of which the restricted or unrestricted or irregular flow
should be shown by petition of local residents to be a menace to the
public health and safety of the community. If the improvement appeared
to be of sufficient importance and the Legislature approved, the
Commission was then authorized to carry out the project and to assess
the cost of the same according to the benefits received by the various
individuals and the properties benefited. To provide for carrying on the
work pending the collection of such assessments, authority was given the
Commission by the act to issue certificates of indebtedness, or to sell
bonds, to be retired on the collection of the cost from the
beneficiaries. That Commission was composed principally of State
officers as ex-officio members, and while its work was excellent its
progress was unavoidably slow.
While the River Improvement Commission was still in existence, the State
Water Supply Commission was created in 1905; the primary object of its
creation being to insure an equitable apportionment of the sources for
public water supplies among the various municipalities and civil
divisions of the State. The Legislature apparently had a very clear
conception of the need for such a State agency and hence created the
Water Supply Commission with those specific powers. It soon became
apparent that this Commission was in better position than the River
Improvement Commission to study flood conditions, involved as they were
with the general subject of water supply; so that by Act of the
Legislature in 1906 the River Improvement Commission was discontinued as
a separate board, and all its powers and duties were transferred to the
State Water Supply Commission.
The jurisdiction of the Water Supply Commission was thus considerably
broadened to include the study of water storage on a large scale. Its
powers and duties were subsequently extended to an investigation of
water-powers within the State, and the preparation of a plan for their
general development. The Commission is therefore engaged in three
distinct but closely related lines of work: (1) the apportionment of
municipal water supplies; (2) the improvement of rivers in the interest
of public health and safety; and (3) the formulation of a plan for the
general development of the water-power resources of the State.
_Municipal Water Supplies_
In practically working out a comprehensive plan for water conservation,
the State has rightly begun with the matter of public water supplies.
Previous to the establishment of the Water Supply Commission, the laws
of the State permitted any city, village, or other municipal corporation
to acquire or condemn lands for sources of water supply practically at
will, and without regard to whether its plans were just and equitable to
other municipalities and their inhabitants that might be affected
thereby. Thus, a large city armed with the power of eminent domain might
take territory from a smaller community regardless of the present or
prospective needs of the latter for the water sources thus appropriated.
In fact, the people of the community invaded did not always have the
foresight to realize that they would sooner or later require those
sources for themselves. It can readily be seen that such a course might
involve a serious menace to the future growth of the smaller community.
Fear of such procedure led to the passage of special prohibitory laws
for many localities, particularly those adjoining New York City, against
what was feared might be the ruthless exercise of the great power of the
larger community. The effect of such legislation, involving as it did so
much hostility between the different localities of the State, proved
that the then current practice afforded but a partial, inadequate, and
unfair method of administering the distribution of sources of water
supply.
Provision for a pure and adequate supply of water for domestic purposes
for all its inhabitants is one of the first duties of the sovereign
State. Through its important effect upon public health alone, the
general use of pure water is a matter of the gravest importance to every
man, woman, and child regardless of local divisions of government or
grouping of citizens. It was with a realization of these principles that
the Legislature of 1905 wisely determined to delegate the power of
control over the selection of sources of public water supply to a
permanent commission which, by the aid of constant and special
consideration of this subject, should become expert in controlling such
selection so as to insure equity, among all the inhabitants and civil
divisions of the State, and the resulting unimpeded prosperity, growth
and comfort of each and every community. The law, therefore, provides
that no municipality, or person, or water-works corporation engaged in
supplying the inhabitants of any municipal corporation with water shall
have power to acquire lands for any new or additional sources of water
supply until its plans have been submitted to, and approved by, the
Water Supply Commission.
In passing upon plans thus submitted to it, the Commission is empowered
to determine: (1) whether the proposed plans are justified by the public
necessities of the community; (2) whether the plans are just and
equitable to other communities, special consideration being given to
future as well as present needs for water supplies; and (3) whether the
plans make fair and equitable provision for the determination and
payment of any and all damages, both direct and indirect, which will
result from their execution.
Under the operation of this law, which appears to have set a precedent
among the States of the Union in the general State administration of
water-supply resources, there has resulted a smoothly adjusted progress
in the development of public water supplies, without further need of
appeal to the Legislature for the drastic prohibitory special
legislation formerly so much sought after.
It is thus well established in the public law of New York State that the
control of sources of water supply is a State function, and that all
persons or municipalities must apply to the central State Government and
receive permission to take what may be determined to be a just share
from the State's total supply of this indispensable resource. It must,
therefore, be evident that the State should aim toward an ideal of
administration of its water resources which would secure fully and
impartially the rights of each and every one of its inhabitants and all
of their local groupings to a just and equitable share of the public
waters. This problem becomes especially complicated under our modern
conditions of civilization which in promoting the growth of enormous
cities, call for engineering works of the greatest scope and magnitude
for the purpose of providing the requisite quantity of pure and
wholesome water.
One of the most recent and familiar illustrations of this fact is the
present vast undertaking of New York City, which at a cost of about
$161,000,000, is going 90 miles to the Catskill Mountains to secure a
water supply which its engineers estimate will be sufficient for its
needs for only a comparatively few years. In this great project, as well
as in the case of many others not so great, there is involved a large
element of hardship and damage to the locality invaded, in the necessary
taking of private property for the larger public water supply by
constructing immense storage reservoirs which permanently occupy the
lands thus acquired, and furnish no considerable means of support and
prosperity to the region--as is the case when land is acquired for
railroad purposes.
This project of New York City constituted the first important case to
come before the Water Supply Commission for its official approval. After
extended and careful consideration of all the manifold interests
involved in this remarkable project, and after a protracted series of
hearings, the suggestions of the Commission with regard to the
protection of the rights of all the other municipalities and people
affected were incorporated into law, and the project received the
sanction of the Commission. Under the authority thus given New York City
has entered upon its work of constructing the most pretentious municipal
water-supply system in the United States.
Subsequent to the New York City petition, many other applications from
villages and cities, large and small, have been passed upon. By the
accumulation of special knowledge resulting from comparing the problems
of different localities, the Commission has been able to bring to the
aid of the smaller communities of the State a fund of experience and
counsel which in not a few instances has proved of great benefit and
assistance. The Commission aims to make its practice simple,
expeditious, and inexpensive; and the technical points involved in each
application are carefully passed upon by a competent engineer.
A complete census of all existing water supply plants and systems has
been made and is revised from time to time, and the progress of each
applicant whose plans are approved is carefully followed. Construction
work involving expenditures of $230,000,000 has been passed upon by the
Commission and undertaken by the municipalities of the State. This has
entailed the official consideration by the Commission of 85 separate
applications, in connection with each of which public hearings are
conducted.
Numerous complaints have been filed with the Commission alleging
unsatisfactory domestic or fire service both on the part of
municipalities and water companies. The source of dissatisfaction seems
to be the lack of foresight on the part of the municipal or water
company officials, as a result of which they have obtained an inadequate
supply or insufficient pressure. There are many instances of this
condition in the State. There are also many consumers who object to
excessive rates which they claim are imposed upon them by water
companies. On the other hand, some of the companies themselves have
attempted to secure legislation to provide that the State shall be the
arbitrator in the adjustment of water rates. These conditions seem to
point to the conclusion that in the comparatively near future the State
will have to assume control over these matters. A certain degree of this
sort of control is exercised in an indirect way at present in the case
of applications which are before the Commission for consideration, but
no jurisdiction lies with the Commission unless the acquisition of lands
for a new or additional source of supply is involved.
_River Improvement for Health and Safety_
A number of river-improvement petitions presented to the River
Improvement Commission and still pending at the time that Commission's
powers were transferred to the Water Supply Commission involved the
construction of storage reservoirs in the Adirondack forests. The River
Improvement Commission had considered the constitutional questions
involved in the utilization of State forest lands for storage reservoir
purposes, and had reached the conclusion that the force of a clause in
the Constitution prohibiting the removal of timber was paramount to all
exercise of the police authority of the State to protect the public
health and safety; and it had declined further to consider any petitions
involving the utilization of State forest lands for reservoir purposes.
The Water Supply Commission on the other hand has held that the statutes
relating to river improvements in the interest of the public health and
safety are not sufficiently comprehensive to afford a proper basis on
which to advance systematic water conservation involving water-powers.
The existing river improvement law has the health and safety element as
its basis, whereas the carrying out of a comprehensive conservation
policy would be of greatest financial value to the existing and new
power developments, owing to the regulating effect of storage reservoirs
on the flow of the streams. For this reason the Water Supply Commission
has not urged the execution of river improvement projects involving
water storage, under existing statutes, and has recommended to the
Legislature that the advancement of such projects should await the
determination of a definite State policy and the formulation of a
thoroughly comprehensive plan by means of which the storage reservoirs
shall constitute a source of income to the State, even after the bonds
are retired. Several projected improvements therefore await the
enactment of a more suitable statute.
Meantime, however, an important project calling for rather different
treatment had arisen in the proposed improvement of the Canaseraga
creek, the most important tributary of Genesee river. This project
originated with the River Improvement Commission, and the Water Supply
Commission inherited and actively carried on the consideration of the
problems involved. For the last 22 miles of its course this creek flows
through a broad, fertile valley. Owing to the steep declivities of the
upper water-shed and the resulting suddenness and severity of floods in
the valley, a large portion of these flat lands were submerged two or
three times a year, and the channel had gradually become filled with
silt which raised the prism to such a height that the stream itself and
its banks were actually higher in places than the adjacent land. In
times of flood the stream overflowed and the water would stand for
several days at a time over the low areas, in a large measure destroying
such crops as were in a growing condition and effectually deterring the
farmers from cultivating the lands thoroughly and systematically. The
project of improvement which, after due course of public hearings and
consideration by the Water Supply Commission received the official
approval of the Legislature, contemplates the straightening, widening,
and deepening of the channel of the stream, so as to afford a much more
capacious flood prism and to shorten the length of the stream through
the flooded district by about six miles. At the same time lateral
ditches are proposed to be constructed to carry off the overflowing
waters from the lower adjacent lands in order to protect them
permanently from any serious or protracted inundation.
This project did not involve the use of any State forest lands, nor did
it affect any water-power developments. The fact was readily established
that the proposed improvement was of great importance to the public
health and safety of the community, and also of great importance, from a
financial point of view, to the prosperity and general welfare of the
community on account of the benefits that would accrue to agriculturists
from the protection to be afforded by the proposed improvements against
flood damages. The machinery involved in the working out of the project
was put in operation and from time to time various obstacles were
encountered which had to be surmounted by amending the law. Gradually
the statute has been so moulded that it is now thought to be in
practical working order, and the proposed Canaseraga creek improvement
is actually provided for and financed; the bonds having been sold at a
good premium. The actual work of the construction of the proposed
improvement will probably be begun in the near future.
The practicability of the method having thus been established the Water
Supply Commission believes that the State now has a method by which
floods may be mitigated if there are no water-powers or State forest
lands involved. On the other hand, the solution of the problem where
these complications do exist, is much more difficult. In the cases of
the Genesee, Hudson, and Raquette rivers, petitions for the improvement
of which have been filed under the public health and safety statute,
very little real relief can be afforded by straightening or enlarging
the channels of the streams. Water storage appears to be the only
practicable solution, and the water-powers which would be improved could
afford to bear a larger share of the cost of improvement than those who
would benefit from flood control.
_Water-Power and Water Storage_
The most recent extension of the jurisdiction of the Commission, under
which it is investigating the water resources of the State, contemplates
three principal lines of operation. These are: (1) To collect
information relating to the water-powers of the State; (2) to make plans
for such specific developments as the Commission deems available; and
(3) to make such other investigations and studies as will enable it to
devise a comprehensive and practicable plan for the general development
of the water-powers of the State for the public use and benefit and the
increase of the public revenue under State ownership and control. In
accordance with this statute, the Commission has proceeded to
investigate in great detail the conditions governing rainfall and
run-off of streams within the State, and has maintained a number of
observation and gaging stations in cooperation with the United States
Weather Bureau and the United States Geological Survey. A detailed
investigation was also made by competent engineering employees to
determine the number, capacity, equipment, and other material
information relating to practically every water-power in the State. A
general investigation of topographic conditions has also been made and
practically all promising storage opportunities have been located and
their approximate possibilities determined. A number of great reservoir
projects have been surveyed and mapped in great detail. In many
instances borings have been made to determine the character of
foundations for dams, and complete detail plans of the dams and other
structures have been prepared. The financial phases of a number of these
great projects have been gone into in detail, and an exhaustive study of
the constitutional and other legal aspects of the problems involved has
been made by the Commission, and the required comprehensive plan has
been prepared.
In spite of the great natural advantages which New York State possesses
in its interior streams with their enormous possibilities for power,
developed and undeveloped, the fullest utilization of these
possibilities can never be realized under existing conditions. Every
river in the State exhibits such irregularity of flow that the
water-power which may be economically developed from the present minimum
flow is far below the average which can be attained by means of
scientific regulation. The difference between maximum and minimum flow
of most of our streams when stated in figures is startling to the
layman. The Hudson, which is more or less typical of the streams of the
State, has a maximum recorded daily discharge of 100 times its least
daily flow. The Genesee, which is much more flashy, has a maximum daily
discharge about 400 times the minimum daily flow. On the other hand the
Oswego, which is naturally more or less regulated by storage in the
"Finger Lakes," has a maximum discharge about 20 times the minimum. The
yearly discharge of some of the rivers in a wet year is nearly double
the yearly flow of a dry year. On a great many streams as much as
three-fourths of the volume of yearly flow usually runs off in the
spring and early summer months. These remarkable fluctuations of stream
flow are principally attributed to the uneven distribution of
precipitation through the year, which unfavorable conditions are
undoubtedly aggravated by the varying conditions affecting evaporation,
which is generally greatest in the months of least precipitation. Over a
large portion of the State, the greater part of the annual precipitation
occurs in the winter and spring months. Considerable water is
temporarily stored in the snow banks, and is usually reduced to the
equivalent of rain simultaneously with the customary heavy rainfall of
the early spring months. It is quite common for millions of cubic feet
of water to run over the falls and dams in the streams during these
spring freshet periods which, if it could be stored until the drier
summer and fall months, would be of wonderful utility in not only
maintaining a higher rate of flow in those dry months, but also doing
away largely with the damage and inconvenience incident to the sudden
run-off of flood waters in their natural condition. These conditions
point to the necessity for large water storage reservoirs as the only
practical means of accomplishing any considerable degree of regulation.
The investigations of the Water Supply Commission have shown that there
is an installation of water-wheels having a capacity of about 830,000
horsepower within New York State, of which amount about 200,000
horsepower is at Niagara Falls. The average daily output of the plants
is about 620,000 horsepower, including 145,000 at Niagara Falls. There
are in all more than 1,800 hydraulic power plants within the State, many
of which are equipped with steam auxiliary power plants. The total
capacity of these auxiliary plants is about 124,000 horsepower. The
investigations have indicated a total development of about 1,500,000
horsepower to be economically feasible within the State. This would be
uninterrupted continuous power, exclusive of Niagara river and the
portion of Saint Lawrence river not under the jurisdiction of New York
State. A considerable part of this amount is represented by that which
would be added to the existing developments by the regulation of the
flow of the streams. A number of individual opportunities exist for
considerable new developments, some of the more important of which are a
30,000 horsepower on Genesee river at Portage Falls, a 30,000 horsepower
on Sacandaga river at Conklingville, a 32,000 horsepower on Raquette
river at Colton Falls, and many others ranging from 1,000 to 20,000
horsepower.
The investigations of the Commission have shown that the construction of
large storage reservoirs for impounding flood waters may be beneficial
in many ways. Probably not all of the possible advantages would result
from the construction of any particular reservoir. The extent and
variety of benefits may be summarized somewhat as follows:
(1) The equalization of stream-flow by storing the water during wet
seasons and using the same to increase the volume of the stream through
dry seasons;
(2) A consequent large increase in the power value of the stream, due to
augmenting the low-water flow, and thus doubling or trebling the
dependable flow for power purposes;
(3) A consequent decrease in the height of freshets, thereby reducing
the great pecuniary damages caused by the periodic recurrence of floods;
(4) By increasing the low-water flow of polluted rivers a dilution would
result which would improve the sanitary conditions on the stream;
(5) Navigation would be benefited by a higher stage of water on the
lower reaches of the rivers;
(6) The extension of transportation facilities, often to an important
and desirable extent, by navigation on the proposed reservoirs;
(7) The low lands of the river valleys could be made somewhat more
tenable, and their agricultural products increased by reducing the
contingency of floods;
(8) The perpetual submergence of extensive tracts of swamp lands, which
are now unsightly and a menace to health, would be possible;
(9) The creation of extensive lakes with beautiful shores offering
desirable locations for permanent homes and great attractions to summer
visitors seeking recreation and health; and
(10) Inestimable indirect benefit to the State due to the stimulation of
industrial enterprises, the increase in number and prosperity of the
people, and the creation of taxable wealth by the progressive
development of water-powers.
* * * * *
Among the more promising opportunities for the inauguration of a State
policy in storage reservoir construction is that offered by Genesee
river. The Commission's investigations have shown that it is practicable
to build a reservoir with a dam near Portage, which would be about
fifteen miles long and over a mile wide, with a total capacity of about
18,000,000,000 cubic feet at a cost of about $4,500,000. The regulation
of the stream by this reservoir would not only practically do away with
disastrous floods in the Genesee valley, but would add power worth at
least $200,000 a year to the existing developments at Rochester, and
develop at least 30,000 horsepower in connection with the dam; the value
of water-power at Mount Morris would also be greatly enhanced, and the
nuisance created by the present polluted condition of the river below
Rochester would be abated. Other opportunities are offered on Sacandaga
river and other tributaries to the Hudson, on Raquette river, and on
Black river, where a system of several reservoirs is proposed. Many
smaller projects are also under consideration. It is estimated that
$20,000,000 would be sufficient to build the reservoirs whose
construction is justified under present conditions.
_Problems Involved With Water Storage_
There are in general two acceptable methods of reducing or preventing
floods. The storage of the water which constitutes the hood wave, or a
considerable portion thereof, is doubtless preferable if there is a site
for a reservoir of sufficient capacity and the construction is not too
expensive. The other method consists of widening, deepening, and
straightening the channel. In recent years, the public has been rather
generally educated to believe that storage reservoirs constitute the
universal and easily applied remedy. There are many rivers in New York
State on which this method may be used effectively, but on many others
the absence of basins of sufficient capacity or the excessive cost
preclude the possibility of complete flood control in this manner.
The problem of absolute flood control is, however, more complex than the
foregoing simple statement would imply. One complication arises from the
fact that the damage from floods in New York State is often increased by
the formation of ice gorges. The formation of these gorges cannot be
prevented by an ordinary system of storage reservoirs, although the
temporary holding back of the ice in a reservoir would in a few cases
undoubtedly be of some assistance. It seems that the most effective
method of dealing with this condition consists of keeping the ice broken
up on the reaches of the stream where gorges are most likely to form,
and thus provide a clear passage for ice brought down by floods. This
method would probably work hardships or inconvenience to the ice
harvesters on some of the rivers; but the protection afforded to
property would doubtless more than offset the disadvantages. The State
has entered upon a policy of protecting property in this manner along
the Hudson below Albany.
Another condition by which floods are greatly aggravated is the
obstruction of the channel by insufficient bridge openings and other
structures. The cause may be ignorance as to volume of flood run-off, or
in the struggle to realize a large ultimate income from a small present
investment the possibility of occasional damages may be carelessly
disregarded. This encroachment on the channels of streams should be a
matter for official regulation, and deserves more public attention than
has yet been given it in this country.
Perhaps the complication which involves the most difficult problems of
construction and operation of flood-control works is that of combining
adequate flood protection with equalizing of stream-flow for the
development of power and other purposes. To materially ameliorate flood
conditions on large rivers usually requires the provision of an enormous
amount of storage; logically, the larger the proportion and the greater
the capacity, up to a certain limit, the better the control. On many
streams it is doubtless feasible to build systems of reservoirs which
would entirely do away with destructive floods, provided the reservoirs
be intelligently operated solely for flood control. It must be frankly
admitted, however, that the ideal use of storage for flood control is
not entirely consistent with the best use of the same storage for
equalizing the flow throughout the year. For the purpose of ideal flood
control, the reservoirs should be emptied of accumulated flood waters
immediately after the flood has subsided and as rapidly as possible
without swelling the stream to dangerous proportions, in order to have
the storage available for another flood. On the other hand, for the
purpose of equalizing the flow as completely as possible throughout the
year, the reservoirs should only be drawn upon when necessary to
supplement the natural flow in the stream in order to maintain the
desired average flow. Theoretically, if the extremes both of the rate
and volume of flow of the stream can be determined (which usually
requires very long records of discharge), and if sufficient storage be
provided for the absolute equalizing of the flow, the solution of both
problems would go absolutely hand in hand, and flood control by storage
would be synonymous with ideal equalization of stream flow. The most
practical solution, where conditions will permit, seems to be to
provide an excess of reservoir capacity so that the portion of the
reservoir above a certain elevation may be reserved entirely for flood
control while the portion below that elevation may be used for
equalizing the flow of the stream. This plan has been proposed by the
Commission in the case of the projected Portage reservoir on Genesee
river.
Undoubtedly the greatest economic problem involved in a study of flood
control is that of the adjustment of the relative rights of the
residents of the upper and lower sections of the river valley. From the
point of view of each the matter calls for different modes of treatment.
The up-river resident believes the solution of the problem will be found
in facilitating the passage of the flood by his district. This may
result in discharging a great volume of water on the communities
down-stream at a time when it would swell the crest of the flood in that
section. The down-stream resident naturally has to contend with a much
larger volume of water, so that to restrict it to a channel of moderate
dimensions is out of the question, and he therefore prefers an
arrangement whereby the surface waters from the upper stream may be at
least temporarily stored in the basins containing the lands of his
up-stream neighbor. The Water Supply Commission has held that the proper
disposition is the improvement which will work the greatest good to the
greatest number, provided there is a distinct economic advantage to the
community in the river valley as a whole.
The matter of municipal water supply is likely to be involved in some of
the great storage projects, also the water supply for the canals of the
State. Several streams on which water storage is practicable are at
present or will be in the future used as sources for canal water supply.
The plans contemplated by the Commission would result in insuring the
sufficiency of these supplies, but the uninterrupted maintenance and
protection of a constant water supply during the navigation season is
undoubtedly essential to the proper operation of the canal system. In
these times of extensive municipal water supply systems, it seems
reasonable to assume that there may be instances in the practical
working out of a comprehensive plan of water conservation where the
project of water supply for a municipality or group of municipalities
may be combined with a water-storage project to good advantage. At any
rate the careful and prolonged study which has been made of municipal
and domestic supplies by the Water Supply Commission has given it a full
appreciation of their prime importance, and the Commission believes that
in any water-shed the question of municipal water supplies should be
given first consideration.
It has been believed by many that the State, in the exercise of its
police power, could construct storage reservoirs which involved the use
of some of the State's forest lands in spite of the constitutional
provision that "The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired,
constituting the Forest Preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever
kept as wild forest lands," and that "They shall not be leased, sold, or
exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, or the
timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed." The River Improvement
Commission considered the constitutional question thus involved, and
reached the conclusion that the force of this prohibitory clause in the
constitution was paramount to all exercise of the police authority of
the State to protect the public health and safety, and it declined
further to consider any petitions involving the utilization of State
forest lands for the construction of storage reservoirs. The Water
Supply Commission has held practically the same view of this question
and has accordingly recommended to the Legislature that the Constitution
of the State be so amended as to permit the flooding of State forest
lands for the purpose of constructing storage reservoirs which are to be
forever owned, maintained, and controlled by the State for the public
use and benefit and for the purpose of providing a public revenue.
The conservation of the water resources of the State on a broad and
comprehensive basis, which shall give practical consideration to the
most favorable natural opportunities and produce the most beneficial
results necessarily involves the flooding of relatively small areas of
State forest lands in the Adirondacks. The surveys indicate that 55,000
acres of State land would be required for a complete system of water
storage, including many reservoirs likely to be built only in the
distant future, if ever. Even this total of 55,000 acres is only 3.9
percent of the State's holdings within the boundaries of the Adirondack
Park; of this amount about four-fifths is low swampy land or is under
water, and only one-fifth, or eleven thousand acres, is of any
considerable value for forest purposes. This question of the amendment
of the Constitution is under consideration by the State Legislature.
The drainage of swamp lands is another problem which tends to complicate
rather than simplify the water-storage situation. There are within the
State extensive areas of swamps whose owners would like to have them
drained and reclaimed for agricultural purposes. Some projects of this
character have already been carried out, but the questionable
constitutionality of most drainage laws has interposed to retard any
very widespread reclamation movement of this character. Here again the
desires of the up-stream and down-stream residents do not harmonize. The
down-stream riparian owner, especially if he operates a water-power,
objects to the drainage of those marsh lands on the ground that they
constitute a natural storage reservoir which operates to steady the flow
of the stream. His solution of the problem would be to build dams across
the outlets from these great swampy tracts and thus increase their
capacity for storage. In some instances it appears to be entirely
feasible to do so, while at the same time it seems equally practicable
to secure the necessary storage by raising the surface of some existing
lakes and subjecting them to some fluctuation. The question enters as to
whether it is not better to flood a comparatively small additional area
around the shores of existing lakes in order to secure the required
storage and then drain and reclaim swamp lands for agricultural
purposes.
By special act of the Legislature in 1909 the Water Supply Commission
was given jurisdiction over certain local improvements to streams which
contemplated the betterment of both the sanitary and scenic conditions.
Certain lakes in the State are bordered with large areas of unattractive
swamp and stump land which the local residents would prefer to have
permanently submerged. It is claimed that the scope of improvement would
include not only benefits to the conditions affecting the health of the
community, but that such improvements would in a number of instances
result in rendering the region more attractive, especially to summer
visitors seeking recreation and health. It is also pointed out that in
some instances the interior navigation on some of the lakes would be
materially improved, and that the community would materially benefit
from the improvement in this manner. The State has already carried out
some improvements of this nature, and it seems quite probable that there
are possibilities of a number of similar improvements. The problem does
not appear to enter into the larger storage reservoir projects, and has
not been given very extended consideration by the Water Supply
Commission.
New York State and her citizens are justly proud of her scenic falls. Of
these the American Falls of Niagara are doubtless the most widely known.
There are, however, other falls on streams within the State which
constitute local attractions of great interest in their respective
communities. The Salmon Falls on Salmon river in Oswego County, the
series of falls in Letchworth Park on the Genesee, and High Falls on the
Ausable are prominent examples. The Water Supply Commission entertains a
deep appreciation of the esthetic value of these beautiful masterpieces
of the hand of nature, and believes intrinsically in their preservation.
This attitude of the Commission is exemplified in the plans for the
proposed Portage Falls power development, which provide for a flow
greatly in excess of the minimum flow over the falls for a period of
twelve daylight hours in each day. On the other hand, the Commission
sees also the wonderful amount of quiet comfort which would be afforded
to modern civilization by electric light and the many other applications
of power which can be generated by the waters running over some of the
falls of the State. The major part of the surplus water is wasted in the
spring months of the year, and does not contribute in any appreciable
measure to the scenic beauty of the falls; on the other hand, the
natural flow of the streams frequently is reduced to such a low rate
that the falls lose something of their attractiveness. It will doubtless
prove practicable in connection with power developments at some of the
naturally attractive falls in the State to insure a larger minimum flow
in the dry weather as well as to conserve the great amount of power at
present running to waste over the falls in the wet season.
In humid climates irrigation is admittedly more or less of an
experiment. Its financial feasibility seems to depend on its being
considered a matter of insurance against the failure of crops in seasons
of low rainfall. There have been a number of scattered experiments
carried on at different places in the State, but the plants used,
especially in the older experiments, were comparatively complicated and
expensive. The equipment for one particular set of experiments cost
about $500 per acre. More recent experiments have been conducted in
sections of the State where the precipitation is light during the
growing months, and in fact throughout the year, and with a less
expensive and a more generally practical equipment. In a few instances,
which have been brought to public attention, the experimenters have been
able to raise excellent orchards and garden products by means of a
comparatively inexpensive irrigation plant, whereas other portions of
the gardens and orchards of the same farms did not produce results
nearly as satisfactory. One successful experimenter claims that he has
made 20 percent interest on his investment by the installation of a
small irrigation plant. The precipitation records show that there are
portions of New York State where the rainfall during the crop-growing
months does not amount to more than one-fourth or one-fifth of the water
which is applied to the same crops where irrigation is conducted on a
broad scale. The subject has not been entered into in great detail by
the Water Supply Commission owing to the fact that its statutory
jurisdiction does not seem to justify such a study, but it appears that
the possibility of such use of at least a portion of the water supply of
the State should be borne in mind and its development carefully watched
in connection with the formulation of a general plan for the
conservation of the water resources of the State by means of storage
reservoirs.
_Need for Comprehensive Plan and Definite Policy_
The importance of a fixed policy establishing State leadership and
control in the matters of water Conservation cannot be overestimated.
Without it, there is no place for consecutive and correlated action,
either executive or legislative. In the past the State has had no policy
of power development, either under public ownership or by encouragement
and regulation of private or corporate development. Unlike many other
States, New York has never, under general laws, granted the right of
eminent domain to individuals or corporations for the purpose of
flooding lands to create storage ponds and develop water-power.
Moreover, it must be conceded that in view of the doubtful
constitutionality of the "mill acts" of other States, and particularly
in view of the strength of the modern sentiment demanding universal
sharing in the benefits of natural resources, this State is not likely
in the future indiscriminately to grant its power of eminent domain for
this purpose. Unless the State shall define its policy and enter upon
the work of carrying it out, this feature of its natural resources must
largely remain in its present undeveloped condition, or be subject to
the same haphazard and uncontrolled methods of utilization that have
governed in the past. If we are to permit private interests to build
storage reservoirs for power purposes on any broad and satisfactory
plan, it can only be done by amending the Constitution. As adequate
reservoirs cannot be generally constructed for power purposes by private
enterprise without constitutional amendment, and possibly not then, the
better way to accomplish this object is for the State itself to announce
its policy and undertake its performance in the interest of all classes
and citizens.
Development by the State ensures the fullest possible utilization of the
power possibilities of each stream, whereas development by uncontrolled
private enterprise often involves waste of resources. Private capital,
seeking the greatest possible immediate return on the investment,
naturally confines its attention to the most concentrated portion of a
given fall. The less precipitous portions of the fall above and below,
involving a large unit outlay in development, are consequently apt to be
neglected, and in too many cases permanently wasted, because no other
enterprise is likely to undertake their development afterward, even if
the rights of the company already on the spot would permit this to be
done. On the other hand, the State, with its greater power and scope,
and with financial resources enabling it to defer the return on its
investment, could undertake the construction of the more extensive works
necessary to develop the full extent of the fall in the supposed case.
Without amplifying the point, it should be clear that the State is the
only authority with sufficient power to ensure the complete development
of each and every stream so that every foot-pound of energy represented
by its falling waters may be given up when necessary to the service of
man.
The prime inclusive reason for the exercise of State authority over the
control of stream-flow for power development is that under modern social
and economic conditions this step is necessary to ensure the equal
participation of all citizens in this form of natural wealth, which is
peculiarly the heritage of the whole people. Some of the more particular
supplemental reasons for State control have been mentioned in the
foregoing. It appears that from all points of view the State is the
proper authority to undertake and carry out the conservation of its own
water resources.
The State Water Supply Commission is engaged in studying the subject of
conserving the falling waters in the rivers and streams of the State. In
a country where all of the streams both great and small fill their banks
in the springtime after heavy rains, and then decrease in volume all
through the dry months so that they become in most instances worthless
as power streams and of but little value in many other ways, it is clear
that storage reservoirs of large capacity, the size depending, of
course, on the water-shed in each case, must be built, if wasted water
and worthless streams are to be turned into valuable assets. The
building of storage reservoirs requires available areas to flood,
favorable sites for dams, and scientific knowledge to supervise the
construction of such damns and reservoirs. There must be, also, some
general head to locate and plan such reservoirs on a broad and
comprehensive scale, so as to store the largest possible amount of water
in each given case; otherwise opportunities for economic development
will be lost and money wasted. The plan should be so feasible and
comprehensive as to include every profitable storage possibility, be it
either great or small. The plan must permit of doing the work by
reservoir units, and at such places as make promise of early and
satisfactory return. With such a plan all who are interested in using to
the best advantages that which is our own, and saving and conserving for
the future that which justly belongs to our children, can work in
harmony. Such a plan will enlist the people of every locality in the
possibilities of water storage in their own developments, and at the
same time not interfere in the least with the developments of a similar
character in other parts of the State.
A plan that will enlist such an interest and make possible such a
systematic development of a great and wasted natural resource, the Water
Supply Commission has been trying to devise. It makes no claim to
perfection, but it does claim that it has devised a workable plan for
saving and conserving this wasted energy for both public and private use
and so as to provide a public revenue. The plan includes the building of
storage reservoirs by the State which shall be owned and controlled by
it. The scheme is to use the stored water to equalize the flow of each
stream upon which it is built, and charge the users of the stored water
for the additional power such stored water gives to mill owners further
down the stream. This does not contemplate charging a mill owner
anything for the power he now has, but only for the additional power he
gets by reason of the equalized flow of the streams due to using the
stored water when he needs it most.
The Water Supply Commission as a part of its last annual report to the
Governor and Legislature submitted a bill providing for a systematic
development of the water-power resources of the State under State
control. This bill contemplated the return of a net revenue to the State
and accordingly provided for the assessment of benefits upon individuals
and properties benefited by reason of the construction and operation of
storage reservoirs. Many of the provisions of this bill were new in
principle, and it was to be expected that a measure of such far-reaching
effect would meet with some opposition. Although the bill provided for
contracts to be entered into with respect to payments for benefits to be
conferred, and the power of assessment was only to be resorted to in
order to forestall an unwilling beneficiary from blocking the progress
of a great public enterprise, such a provision met with disapproval in
the Legislature and the bill was not advanced. The Commission believes
that as the Legislature becomes more familiar with the problems
involved, it will approve of this policy. For these reasons, the bill
with amendments in other respects will again be submitted to the
Legislature in connection with the next annual report.
REPORT FROM NORTH DAKOTA
C. B. WALDRON
_State Agricultural College of North Dakota_
While Conservation means the same to all people, namely, the
perpetuation of those resources and conditions that make a prosperous
existence possible, yet each Commonwealth must develop its own best
means for bringing this about.
While it is wise for the Federal and State governments to take what
steps they may to prevent the wasteful destruction of certain natural
resources like our minerals and forests, yet if all this be done and
with the thoroughness that the most ardent of us could demand, still the
great problem of Conservation taken as a whole would scarcely be
touched. The utmost that the Government can do directly, though of
considerable magnitude in itself, is relatively of small importance.
Even meetings like the present one have a significance and value only as
they inaugurate and vitalize Conservation movements more important and
extensive than any Government can ever hope to bring about by direct
means.
This principle applies to the greatest degree in instances in which
control of the natural resources has already passed to the individual
owners. It applies with even added force when such ownership lies in
agricultural lands. The reason for this lies in the fact that of all
natural resources the soil is by far the most important, and, further,
that conservative principles and practices apply with greater directness
and profit there than in any other field. The conservation of this
season's plant food and soil moisture means next season's crop. Through
plant and animal breeding the more prolific and profitable strains are
conserved, and through battle with plant and soil diseases and with
pests of all kinds we conserve the purity of our soil and the crops that
we grow. Such active and constant exercise of Conservation as this may
be, in a field that directly affects our entire population in the most
vital and direct manner possible, is a matter for our most earnest
consideration.
What is being done to train the great body of mankind to whom this
important task of Conservation is entrusted; and are the present
measures adequate?
Aside from legislation pertaining to weeds, plant diseases, and insect
pests, there is little that can be done directly to enforce Conservation
measures. The friction encountered in enforcing even this body of laws
indicates the difficulties that arise when public restrictions come into
conflict with private enterprises. True, it is a crime to waste the
fertility of the soil on which the very existence of the race depends;
but until all our traditions change, the only punishment that will be
visited upon the offender is not from the legally constituted State but
from nature herself. He whose will is to rob and skin the land may not
be reached by legal process, but he must be taught that the penalties
which an outraged nature exacts are as inexorable as the Blind Goddess
ever pronounced.
While there always will be fools that can learn only in the school of
experience, yet the great majority are glad to find an easier and
cheaper way.
Back of the Conservation of the farm must lie the education of the
farmer; and greater than all the other problems of Conservation is this
one. We are barely entering upon this field, for the reason that the
fund of knowledge upon which this education is to be based has been but
recently acquired. Our knowledge of the soil in its relation to plant
growth, the control of plant diseases, and the laws of plant
improvement, have all come to us in recent years. Still, much as there
is yet to determine, there is already a vast fund of knowledge of untold
worth; but means are not yet provided for making it useful and
effective.
Speaking for North Dakota, such natural resources as she possesses,
aside from her soils, are being well protected and conserved through
public measures already in force. Her vast fields of lignite coal
underlain with valuable clays have been withdrawn from homestead entry,
and hereafter only surface rights in these lands will be granted.
Such forests as the State originally had have long since passed into
private hands, and the land has mostly been cleared for farming. In
North Dakota, forestry, like agriculture, will be operated by the
individual land owners for their direct if not immediate benefit. It may
be found advisable to plant public forests in parts of the Bad Lands and
other rough areas, but by far the greater part of tree planting will be
done upon small areas on the individual farms. The State already
encourages such planting by a bounty paid in the remission of taxes.
This is not enough. The land owner in most cases does not know what
trees will prove the most profitable, nor how they may best be grown.
Here again the one necessity is education. Object lessons in tree
planting should be established in each community, and all pupils in the
public schools should be shown how to grow a grove of trees. Such a
system would produce immeasurably greater results in the way of timber
production than would come from the public forests, important as these
doubtless are.
But agricultural education will conserve something more than the
fertility of the soil and the vitality and purity of our crops. It means
also the conservation of a prosperous, virile, self-dependent, and
intelligent people. It means a prosperous people, for no cost of
education of the right kind was ever known to impoverish a people, and
no expenditure rightly made could ever equal the gain. Conservation can
never be expected of the ignorant. Conservation is but the larger and
more altruistic expression of the term known as thrift; and ignorance
and poverty know it not. The means for extending and improving
agricultural education will develop and expand in the same measure that
we apply ourselves to the problem.
Agricultural colleges have not rendered the assistance that they should
in extending agricultural education, because their field has been too
restricted. Excellent as their instruction may be, it reaches only a
very small percentage of our people directly. Their scope and activities
must be enlarged till their influence is felt in every community. They
should not be shut out from participating in the work of general
education as they now are in many instances. In a measure we repudiate
the findings of science, and discount the progress we have made, in not
providing a wider application for our researches. There is at present no
adequate means for the dissemination of the vast body of knowledge that
alone will save to us our own great underlying industry of agriculture.
The world has oftentimes tried the experiment of building a State upon
other foundations than that of a conservative agriculture and an
intelligent and prosperous agricultural class, and always with the same
fatal outcome. The grandeur of cities, the glory and might of great
armies, the highest culture in the arts, and the noblest of religions
and philosophies, will not suffice to save the nation that knows not
nature and defies her laws. That State but hastens the day of its own
destruction that fails to train its citizens in the right use and
management of their land holdings. No jealous interest of whatever worth
in itself should be given consideration at the expense of that which
maintains all of our interests.
North Dakota has been favored by nature with a soil so productive that,
properly tilled and conserved, it will feed one-tenth of the present
population of the entire Nation. It is an asset such as few nations
ever possessed, and it should be so safeguarded that its great
contribution to the Nation's existence may steadily increase. The one
way to do this is to teach the land owners that Conservation in
agriculture means not only patriotism and good citizenship but
prosperity as well, that useful education at any price is always cheap
and ignorance costly, and that no values can be more stable and certain
than those lying in productive farm lands.
The patriotic sentiment that leads men to sacrifice time and money that
our natural resources may be conserved is most commendable. Of still
more service is he who aids in developing a system of education that
shall teach men to conserve the natural resources entrusted to their own
hands. The task is a great one, but not beyond the range of possibility;
and upon its successful accomplishment rests the welfare of the whole
Nation.
REPORT FROM OHIO
WILLIAM R. LAZENBY
_Ohio State University_
_Chairman Executive Committee of the Society for Horticultural Science_
The welfare of our country, as well as that of the States composing it,
depends on a wise Conservation of its rich and varied natural resources.
Many of these resources have been so bountiful, and apparently so
inexhaustible, that we have drawn upon them without a thought of their
limitations of the dire effects of their exhaustion.
Speaking especially for Ohio, I trust it will be understood that by
"Conservation" I mean an honest effort to make that State a good one to
live in for all of us now there, and for all who may come after us.
In addition to the three problems named below, other Conservation
questions will doubtless require attention; but for these, every
instinct of justice and humanity insists that we accord them instant and
earnest consideration.
1--_The Forestry Problem_
I place this first, because the influence of the forests is so
far-reaching, and we have no clear-cut, well-defined policy in Ohio
designed to preserve, improve, and extend our forests.
Ohio has an area of 41,000 square miles, and has been tremendously rich
in hardwood timber. We have cut down this timber most improvidently,
with no effort to restore the supply, and so far as the State is
concerned are now on the verge of a timber famine. In 1900, according to
the Twelfth United States Census, Ohio ranked seventh as a
lumber-producing State, being exceeded by Michigan, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, and Maine. Since then she has dropped
to the nineteenth rank, and bids fair in the near future, unless prompt
and vigorous action is taken, to have so little timber left as not to be
rated at all. The effects of this wholesale removal of our forests may
be briefly summarized as follows:
(1) We are compelling those who come after us to pay an almost
prohibitive price for lumber, and are likely to see an end of some of
the most important wood-consuming industries of the State. As a source
of wood supply our forests touch the interests of all. We are a
universally wood-consuming as well as food-consuming people.
(2) The recent floods in the river-valleys of Ohio, which have caused
losses of life and of property valued at millions, have followed and
will continue to follow the denudation of our hills by excessive
tree-cutting, followed by fire.
(3) In many places the erosion or wash caused by the rapid run-off of
the rain and melting snow is reducing the deforested hills to barren
wastes, and is covering much of the fertile soil of the valleys with
sterile sand and gravel.
The forest problem is the great Conservation problem in Ohio. It affects
the State, because it concerns every citizen of the State, and it can
only be solved by action of the State and the Nation.
2--_The Waterway Problem_
In my opinion this question comes next in importance. By waterways I
mean not only navigable streams and canals, but power sites on
non-navigable as well as navigable streams. If the forests are properly
managed, water will be an unfailing source of power. No few men, nor any
special interest, should control these sources of power, for this means
a control of all industry that depends on power. Our waterways may not
be so enormously valuable as those of some other States, and this is all
the more reason why they should be conserved for the public good.
We shall be needlessly mortgaging the future by allowing any special
class or interest to use our waterways and water-power sites without
making some direct payment for these valuable privileges. This is
important not only for State revenue, but as a recognition of the
principle that what belongs to the people should not be absolutely
surrendered to private interests. There is great value in our
undeveloped water-power. An engineer's inventory of all the waters of
the State, with their possibilities of power, would cause Ohio to sit up
and take notice.
If forests and waterways were properly conserved, we would hear less
from railroads and power companies of the enormous bill of expense from
floods at one time, and loss from low water at another.
3--_The Mineral Problem_
Ohio is rich in coal, oil, gas, stone, clay, sand, and other mineral
resources. These should be carefully catalogued, so that the people
could know more about the material assets of the State.
Mineral lands should be sold only to those who are prepared to develop
them, and under conditions that will prevent the improvident waste of
reckless exploitation. For the present it is probable that the actual
development or working of the mineral properties of the State can best
be done by private interests acting under some public control, but the
State has no moral right to permit such valuable privileges to pass from
its control for nothing in return. It is only by some form of National
and State Conservation that we can secure an abundant and continuous
supply of such primal necessities as wood, water-power, and coal.
* * * * *
The control of animal diseases and of insect and fungus pests that are
spread by interstate transportation, and the preservation of migratory
birds, which are our best allies in fighting injurious insects, are
vital subjects for the consideration of a National Conservation
Congress. The control and destruction of enemies and the protection and
multiplication of friends by the concentrated and cooperative action of
the States are subjects that clearly come within the scope and interest
of National Conservation.
Conservation can only be effective by good laws faithfully executed. By
proper legislation we can encourage the reforestation of our denuded
hillsides and stimulate the planting and care of valuable timber trees
through relieving such land from undue taxation. Timber should be taxed
like other property, when cut; but to tax land and its timber crop every
year is manifestly unjust.
In order to rightly conserve our forests we should furnish good
opportunities for young men to become well trained in forestry. For this
our schools of forestry must be well equipped. I am pleased to state
that Ohio has made a splendid beginning in this direction; and there is
no reason, if properly supported, why this centrally located State
should not have one of the best forestry schools in the country.
What is needed to properly investigate the conditions and formulate a
Conservation policy for the State is a good Conservation Commission. In
addition to this, we need more thought, more study, more science, on the
part of the public, concerning the natural resources of the State, with
less blind devotion to the old ways and means of doing things, which if
ever judicious, have long ceased to be so.
REPORT FROM OKLAHOMA
BENJ. MARTIN
I have the honor to represent as a Delegate to this Congress the
Muskogee Commercial Club of Muskogee, one of the leading organizations
of Oklahoma, under the influence of which the city of Muskogee grew from
a town of 4,000 inhabitants in 1900 to its present population of 30,000.
A distinguished citizen of a neighboring State, on a recent visit to our
city, constituted himself a Grand Jury and indicted each citizen of
larceny. He charges that Oklahoma for years had been stealing from the
other States of the Union some of their best brain and brawn, until now
we have approximately two millions of the choicest sons and daughters of
the American Republic. To this indictment we now offer ourselves for
arraignment before this Congress, and plead guilty, and we are ready to
receive our sentence without a plea that justice be tempered with mercy.
As to other charges of wrongdoing on the part of some of Oklahoma's
distinguished sons, which have been much heralded in the press, I most
emphatically enter a plea of "Not guilty," either in law or morals; and
time will completely vindicate them.
The resources of Oklahoma are vast, far beyond the conception or
knowledge of those who have resided within her borders for many years.
Conservation is of particular importance to us, for yet our resources
are practically in their virgin state. We heartily join hands with you
of our sister States in this great movement, in my opinion due to the
work and wisdom of Gifford Pinchot more than any other American citizen.
However, his ideas and earnestness were very fully and heartily
appreciated by that foremost American, Theodore Roosevelt, to whom for
his great work in inaugurating and fostering Federal Conservation we
give honor.
Chief among our resources are the vast variety of agricultural products
which grow in great abundance. In the same field may be seen growing
enormous yields of corn, cotton, oats, wheat, and alfalfa. No other
State can excel Oklahoma in the production of these products. We join
the great corn-belt of Illinois and Iowa in singing the song of
Whittier--
Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard,
Heap high the golden corn;
No richer gift has autumn poured
From out her lavish horn.
Let other lands exulting glean
The apple from the pine,
The orange from its glossy green,
The cluster from the vine.
We better love the hardy gift
Our rugged vales bestow,
To cheer us when the storm shall drift
Our harvest fields with snow.
The following extract is from the First Biennial Report of the Oklahoma
State Board of Agriculture:
"Oklahoma is the greatest country on earth, not only because we can grow
everything here that can be grown anywhere else in the United States,
but because many crops we can grow here are decidedly more profitable
than are crops of like character in many other sections of the country."
We join our sister States of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee,
Alabama, and others in the endeavor to conserve their vast deposits of
coal, not solely from patriotic motives, but also because of our
extensive coal, oil, and gas fields, only a small part of which have yet
been developed. The supply of timber in the eastern and southeastern
portions of our State is worthy of the consideration and protection of
the Conservation movement. Particularly rich is our State in its streams
of water and its water-power. The principal rivers are the Arkansas, the
Grand, the Verdegris, the Canadian, the Cimarron, the Washita, and the
Red, the latter forming the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas. These
streams within themselves contain great resources, yet in the virgin
state, awaiting but to be developed and utilized by American genius.
I know of no more appropriate way of closing my statement than in the
words of Colonel John A. Joyce--
The rolling hills and mountains,
Without their forest dress
Will soon bring to the Nation
Great hunger and distress;
And if we do not listen
To the scientific strain,
The soil of grand Columbia
Will be washed away by rain.
Brave nature in her glory
Works for animated things,
And tells the old, old story
Of feeding serfs and kings;
But man, obtuse and greedy,
Will not listen in his pain
To the poor, and weak, and needy,
Who must live by sun and rain.
We must save the soil and water,
Or a desert there will be
For wife, and son, and daughter,
In this land of Liberty.
And the Congress of the Nation,
Must now listen to the brain
Of our scientific sages
Who would husband soil and rain.
REPORT FROM OREGON
E. T. ALLEN
_Assistant Secretary Oregon Conservation Commission_
Oregon's chief Conservation advances of late have been the passage of
progressive water laws, by the effort of the State Conservation
Commission, and the progress of private timber owners in the prevention
of forest fires. The most urgent task now on hand is to secure more
liberal State aid in forest protection.
Immediately following the Conference of Governors at the White House in
1908, Governor Chamberlain appointed for Oregon a Conservation
Commission of 15 members. This semi-official Commission was reduced to 7
members, and given statutory standing and a small appropriation, by Act
of Legislature filed February 23, 1909. Its work is "To ascertain and
make known the natural resources of the State of Oregon, and to
cooperate with the National Conservation Commission to the end that the
natural resources of the State may be conserved and put to the highest
use."
No legislative session has been held since the statutory Commission was
appointed. In its earlier form, however, it recommended and secured the
passage, by the same Legislature which gave it official standing, of a
workable law for the development of Carey act projects, and one for
complete State control of waters within the State. Both have proved
excellent, no defects of importance having developed.