Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1912 — Re-Forest Slopes of Pike's Peak [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Re-Forest Slopes of Pike's Peak

EVERY day was Arbor Day high up on the slopes of Pike’s Peak last spring. Government forestry officials replanted a vast area, which was fireswept more than 50 years ago. '* Hundreds of thousands of pine seed and young trees were planted on barren slopes, marking the first important step toward reforesting the entire Rocky Mountain Range—or so much thereof as is Included in the National Forests. With the denuded areas on the slopes of the Rockies covered with a sturdy growth of young trees, the snowfall ih the mountains will be much slower ih melting. This will hold back the waters which now rush to the Mississippi Valley from the Rocky Mountain watershed in April and May. These late floods have done the most damage this season, as their addition to streams already bank full has proved too great a strain for levees to bear. A force of more than 50 men were employed in the Pike’s Peak region for several weeks, planting seed or young trees, according to the demands of the situation. The area that is being reclaimed Is typical of millions of acres of once heavily wooded land In the National forests. After being swept by fire, many years ago, the reseeding process of nature has proved very slow, and the land has become more barren every year. The soil soil has been washed down the mountainside by rains, until In many places only rocks are to be seen where once there was a goodly covering of earth. Charred and rotting trunks of trees are to be seen on every hand, and nothing could be more desolate or hopeless than these scarred mountain slopes. The campaign against desolation has been waged adroitly. No point has been overlooked by the forestry experts in carrying on the battle. If snow fell, the planters were set to work broadcasting seed In certain parts of the plantation, where such a method of planting seemed modt advisable. Broadcasting on the snow is one of the most effective methods of planting under certain conditions, and most of such work is done on horseback, ,as the seed, cast from a great height, will Imbed Itself deeply in the snow and Is not likely to be blown away. Requires Great Care.

Every day a thin line of skirmishers climbed up and down the rockiest slopes, each man carrying a bagful of seed at his side and a small pick in his hand. A hole was dug, with one blow of the instrument, and a seed Inserted in the shallow covering of the soil, or In the earth-filled crevice between two stones. The men always work In a line and become so expert at this method of planting that they climb up and down the mountainsides in almost perfect formation, and with incredible rapidity, planting as they go. In another part of the plantation, where it had been decided that seedplanting was not best, another line of skirmishers planted young trees. In these places the resources of the Forestry Department were called upon. The Pike National Forest has a splendid nursery of several hundred acres in the foothills at Monument, Col., where hundreds of thousands of -young trees are bejng reared for planting purposes. From the Monument nursery'the young trees were shipped In crates, with their roots carefully protected. The roots for a or 2-year-old.pine are so sensitive that contact with the air for a few seconds will spoil them. Wet moss is used forkeeping the roots protected from the air, and in this way the young trees arrive for planting. Though they are only a few inches high, their vitality is something amazing, and there is less loss from planting by this method than any other. » Generally the crates of young trees were replanted, close to the scene of operations, In some gully where they kept damp. As they were wanted they were repacked into wire baskets, which were slung across the shoulders of carriers. These carriers took the trees to the planters, who were busy with their mattocks. The carriers passed up and down the line of planters. As each hole was dug a tree was quickly trust in to avoid the contact of air with the roots, and a couple st sticks or stones placed beside the young pine to shelter it from the wind until it becomes firmly rooted in its pew home. The general attitude of the Western

public may be summed up in the words of a grizzled old prospector, who, on seeing a line of tree planters at work on the Cascade plantation in the Pike’s Peak region, exclaimed: “Well, it looks doggone good to see soinebody traveling through these hills building things up instead of cutting down and destroying!” Bare and Forbidding. I The work of reforesting the Pike’s Peak region is in charge of Forest Supervisor C. WaFltzgerald and Forest Expert H. G. Relnlsch. Both are young men, but have made notable names for themselves in forestry work In this country. Mr. Fitzgerald spends much of this time In the saddle, looking after affairs in the Pike National Forest, a domain of 1,300,000 acres. Mr, Relnsch has had experience in forestry in Germany as well as In this country, and is an authority on sowing and planting. “These trees are my children,” said the young German enthusiastically, as he watched the planters at work. ’.T have 350,000 of them growing now, and In ten years you will never recognize these mountain slopes. Things could not be more bare and forbidding than they are today. They would get worse, as the natural , re-seeding process seems to be very slow here, but once let our young trees get a start, and things will be vastly different. See that slope across theret" he continued, pointing across to a hill, the upper part of which seemed solid granite. “We have planted only on the lower part of that slope, where there is more soil. But In time, when our trees have grown, the winds will blow the seeds to the upper slopes, and the hill will be covered with trees to the very top. That is our main object—to assist nature In her work. “We are planting western yellow pine and Douglas fir here. The yellow pine does well on the dry, sunny slopes, s and the Douglas fir is planted on the more shaded slopes, as that trees requires more moisture. But there are many questions to be determined before planting—questions of the timber that will prove the most salable and the most accessible. As a general rule we follow the footsteps of nature as closely as possible In planting, but sometimes the timber that nature has planted on a slope will not prove merchantable so something else is substituted.”

WHERE SEEDLINGS WERE PLANTED