A gric . - 1-orestry . M a in Library
. XXII. No. 5
SEPTEMBER, 1919
CAL
SOC1 ETY
3U E' N
Published cry
THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Special Redwoods Number
f nrk 200l0giral
GENERAL OFFICE, 111 Broadway, NEW YORK CITY.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
MADISON GRANT
FRANK K. STURGIS.
PERCY R. PYNE, 20 Exchange Place.
A00t
THE FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST Co.
MADISON GRANT.
MADISON GRANT, Chairman.
PERCY R. PYNE,
WILLIAM WHITE NILES,
Committee
WM. PIERSON HAMILTON, WATSON B. DICKERMAN,
FRANK K. STURGIS, ANTHONY R. KUSER,
LISPENARD STEWART, HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, ex-officio.
HJnarfc of JHattag*r0
: The MAYOR and The PRESIDENT Department of Parks, City of New York.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN,
LISPENARD STEWART,
CHARLES F. DIETERICH,
GEORGE F. BAKER,
LEVI P. MORTON,
ANDREW CARNEGIE,
MADISON GRANT,
WILLIAM WHITE NILES,
PERCY R. PYNE,
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL,
CLEVELAND H. DODGE,
C. LEDYARD BLAIR,
of 1920
WM. PIERSON HAMILTON,
ROBERT S. BREWSTER,
EDWARD S. HARKNESS,
WILLIAM B. OSGOOD FIELD,
OUa00 of 1921
HENRY A. C. TAYLOR,
FRANK K. STURGIS,
GEORGE J. GOULD,
OGDEN MILLS,
QUaBH of 1922
EMERSON McMiLLiN,
ANTHONY R. KUSER,
WATSON B. DICKERMAN,
MORTIMER L. SCHIFF,
A. BARTON HEPBURN,
WILLIAM WOODWARD,
EDWIN THORNE,
PERCY A. ROCKEFELLER.
LEWIS RUTHERFORD MORRIS,
ARCHER M. HUNTINGTON,
HENRY M. TILFORD,
E. C. CONVERSE.
FREDERIC C. WALCOTT,
BEEKMAN WINTHROP,
GEORGE C. CLARK,
W. REDMOND CROSS.
(Srnrral (0ffirrra
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Director Zoological Park.
CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, Director, New York Aquarium.
GEORGE S. HUNTINGTON, Prosector. C. GRANT LA FARGE, Architect.
GEORGE A. MACCALLUM, Pathologist. H. DE B. PARSONS, Consulting Engineer.
R. L. CERERO, Bursar.
of ftf* Znolngtral $Iark
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Director.
H. R. MITCHELL, Chief Cleric. H. W. MERKEL, Chief Forester.
RAYMOND L. DITMARS, Curator, Reptiles. W. REID BLAIR, Veterinarian.
LEE S. CRANDALL, Curator, Birds. WILLIAM MITCHELL, Cashier.
WILLIAM BEEBE, Honorary Curator, Birds.
ELWIN R. SANBORN, Photographer and Editor.
nf tlj* Aqttartttm
CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, Director.
WASHINGTON I. DENYSE, Assistant. ROBERT SUTCLIFFE, Clerk.
IDA M. MELLEN, Secretary.
Special Redwoods Number
SAVING THE REDWOODS
An Account of the Movement During 1919 to Preserve
the Redwoods of California
, . .*;.
By MADISON GRANT
t-:.
CONTENTS for SEPTEMBER 1919
BULL CREEK FLAT GROVE ...,, Frontispiece
SAVING THE REDWOODS Matiison Grant 91
THE BIG TREE OF THE SIEKKAS. THE REDWOODS LEAGUE.
REDWOODS OF THE COAST. CONDITIONS IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
DESTRUCTION. SURVEY OF THE REDWOODS, 1919.
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY PLAN FOR 1920 119
A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 120
Illustrations
DISTRIBUTION OF REDWOODS MAP 92
CALIFORNIA STATE HIGHWAY 93
CALIFORNIA STATE HIGHWAY PANORAMIC VIEW 94
REDWOOD FOREST BEFORE CUTTING : 94
REDWOOD FOREST AFTER CUTTING 95
LUM B BRING OPERATION 96
DEPTHS OF THE REDWOODS 98
CUTTING REDWOODS 100
TYPICAL LUMBER MILL 101
GRAPE STAKE CUTTING 101
LUMBERING ALONG STATE HIGHWAY 102
PILES OF GRAPE STAKES 104
SPLITTING REDWOODS '. : ^-<t-M)5
LUMBERING ALONG STATE HIGHWAY ^ 105
REDWOODS ON EEL RIVER ~ 106
REDWOODS ON DYERVILLE FLAT !'.v v 108
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS * s l 1 1
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS 113
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS 114
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS 11 5
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS 117
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS Cover
Photographs by Charles P. Punchard, Freeman Art Co., and Others.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULL.ETIN
PUBLISHED by the NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
111 Broadway, New York City
Siiif/le Copies, 20c Bi-monthly Yearly by Mail, $1.00
BULL CREEK FLAT GROVE
Looking west across the South Fork of the Eel River and up Bull Creek, August 1917
Humboldt County, California. (See Page 112)
[90]
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
BULLETIN
Published by the New York Zoological Society
VOLUME XXII
SEPTEMBER 1919
NUMBER 5
SAVING THE REDWOODS
By MADISON GRANT
AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOVEMENT DURING 1919 TO PRESERVE THE REDWOODS
OF CALIFORNIA
WHILE the cause of conservation of game
and forest in the United States has ad-
vanced with a rapidity and with a de-
gree of public support that could not have been
anticipated by the early conservationists, never-
theless it has been too slow to keep pace with
the forces of destruction. Members of the Zoo-
logical Society know only too well that the ever-
increasing stringency of game protective meas-
ures has failed to save many species of bur wild
life outside of national parks and other sanc-
tuaries,, and that in them alone the game will
find its final refuge.
The forests are now threatened with annihila-
tion. It is officially stated that at the present
rate of destruction the old stand of forests in
the United States will all be cut over within
the next sixty years. It will not last sixty years
because the new and efficient methods of logging
by machinery now generally introduced are not
only more rapid, but make a clean sweep of ev-
ery standing stick, while the old method left be-
hind many of the smaller trees as well as a few
giants which were defective and not worth cut-
ting.
The most serious threat of devastation, cer-
tainly the most dramatic, is the impending de-
struction of the giant Redwoods of the California
coast, and the following pages are devoted to
a description of the efforts being made to save
them.
History of the Sequoia.
The genus Sequoia, to which the two surviv-
ing species of the great trees of California be-
long, is a member of the Taxodiaceae and stands
widely separated from other living trees. This
genus together with closely related groups once
spread over the entire northern hemisphere, and
fossil remains of Sequoia and kindred genera
have been found in Europe, Spitzbergen, Sibe-
ria, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Changes in
climate and other causes have led to their grad-
ual extinction until the sole survivors of the
genus are confined to California, one to high
altitudes in the Sierra Mountains, and the other
to the western slope of the Coast Range. Fos-
sil leaves and cones of genera closely related to
Sequoia occur in the rocks of the Jurassic and of
the Trias, and the members of the genus Sequoia
were common and characteristic trees in Cali-
fornia throughout the Cretaceous.
To give some idea of what this bald statement
means, these trees, virtually in their present
form, flourished in California before the mam-
mals developed from their humble, insectivorous
ancestors of the Mesozoic and while the dino-
saurs were the most advanced form of land ani-
mals. The mountains upon which these trees
now stand contain fossil records of early Se-
quoia-like trees, proving that this group abound-
ed before the rocks that constitute the pres-
ent Sierras and Coast Ranges were laid down in
the shallow seas, to be upheaved later and erod-
ed into their present shapes. In the base of
Mt. Shasta and under its lava flows, the ancient
rocks are marked with imprints of their leaves
and cones. Such antiquity is to be measured not
by hundreds or thousands, but by millions of
years.
While the duration of the family, of the
genus, and even the existing species, or species
so closely allied as to be almost indistinguish-
able, extends through such an immense portion
of the earth's history, the life of the living trees
is correspondingly great.
[91]
92
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
The Sequoia is not only the oldest living thing
on earth, but it is the tallest tree on earth, and
we have no reason, so far as our paleo'-botanical
studies have gone, to believe that there ever
existed on earth either individual trees or forests
that surpassed in size, in girth, in height or in
grandeur, the Sequoias of California. And
these are the trees that modern commercialism
is cutting for grape stakes, for railroad ties and
for shingles.
The Hig Tree of the Sierras.
While the purpose of this article is to deal
with the Redwoods of the coast rather than the
Big Trees of the Sierras, both of the genus
Sequoia, a description of the Redwood should
be preceded by a few words on the Big Tree.
The Big Trees, Sequoia cjicfantea, are very dif-
ferent from the Redwoods and are found on
the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas in Cali-
fornia, at an altitude of from five to eight thou-
sand feet above the sea, with a north and south
range of about 250 miles. They do not consti-
tute a solid stand, but occur in more or less
isolated groves, and mixed in with them are
other huge trees, chiefly white fir, incense cedar,
sugar and yellow pine.
These groves are stated generally to be about
thirty-two in number and are much scattered
and isolated in the northern part of their range,
while in the south they are larger and closer
together. This distribution shows that the Big
Tree is on the decline, the various groves having
long since lost touch with each other, while in
the north the reproduction is very poor. They
all grow in spots sheltered by surrounding for-
ests and the slopes of the Sierras are more or
less windless, but unless artificially protected in
national parks they would soon be destroyed for
their valuable lumber.
They have suffered throughout the ages from
ground fires. Their enormously thick bark,
which is from one-half to two feet through, is a
great protection, and the tree lives on, although
its heart has been burned out, so long as this
bark and its underlying cambium layer can reach
the earth. If protected by human care the Big
Tree has remarkable recuperative power, and
many of the trees in the Giant Forest show an
accelerated growth owing to their immunity
from fire even for a few decades.
These trees are from five to twenty-five feet
in diameter at shoulder height above the ground,
and in the Giant Forest alone there are said to
be 5,000 trees of over ten feet in diameter.
Map showing the original distribution of the Coast Redwoods,
Sequoia sempervirens. (See Page 94)
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
93
The height varies from 150 to much over 225
feet, and as they are without taproots they stand
absolutely straight, often without branches from
the ground to a height of 1 75 feet.
The crown usually is dead ; not blasted by
lightning, as has been often stated, but because
ancient fires have eaten in at the base so that the
flow of sap to the extreme crown has been
checked. When connection with the ground and
the life-giving water supply has been strongly
re-established, growth takes place from the top-
most uninjured brandies, and forms a new but
false crown. It is estimated that if these trees
had escaped upsetting by the wind and had been
allowed to grow entirely free from fire through-
out their age long existence and had carried
their proportionate growth (calculated from the
tapering of the trunk) to their uttermost limits,
these giants would be 600 feet high.
This is mere speculation, as is the theoretical
age of some of the more ancient trees. The
known age of trees which have been cut is from
1,100 to 3,250 years, but there is little doubt
that this long period is much exceeded in such
cases as the General Sherman tree or the Griz-
zly Giant. The life of these monsters can be
computed only by comparison with the measured
trunks of lumbered trees the actual age of which
has been ascertained from the rings of growth.
There is always a factor of uncertainty in the
size of trees depending on their rate of growth
and supply of water. In exposed positions with
poor water and soil, development may be greatly
retarded and a tree may be very ancient al-
though relatively small in size. On the other
hand, a favorable location, such as a pocket in
the rock or access to underlying w r ater, might
greatly accelerate the growth of a tree within
the same grove.
Some close observers claim that the size of
the annual ring increases with the dryness
and not with the moistness of the season. They
argue that there is little or no rainfall in the
Sierras during the summer and the ground
water comes from melted snow, that growth
takes place during the months, when the ground
is free from snow, and that a wet season means
a heavy snowfall which lies around the trees
late in the spring and gathers again early in
the autumn, thus shortening the number of
weeks available for increase of bulk.
If this theory be correct, then the series of
gradually thickening rings, culminating and
then thinning out again, which is characteristic
The California State Highway in 1917 before cutting
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE
Along the South Fork of the Eel River, Hu
of nearly all the Big Trees that have been stud-
ied, would record dry seasons and not those of
abundant moisture. This' theory flatly contra-
dicts the evidence recently deduced from a study
of the growth rings of these trees with reference
to oscillations of climate throughout the North-
ern Hemisphere.
Redwoods of the Coast.
The Redwood of the coast, Sequoia semper-
vlrens the immortal Sequoia welj deserves its
name. Far from being a "battered remnant
like its cousin of the 'Sierras, whose shattered
ranks remind one of ponderous Roman ruins, the
Redwood is a beautiful, cheerful and very brave
tree. Burned and hacked and butchered, it
sprouts up again with a vitality truly amazing.
It is this marvellous capacity for new growth
from trunk or from root saplings, which is per-
haps the most interesting character of the Red-
wood in contrast with the Big Tree, which has
no such means of regeneration and must depend
on its cones for reproduction.
All the Redwood forests have been more or
less injured by fire, often deliberately started
by the lumbermen to clear away the slash, and
it is a wonderful sight to see a charred trunk
throw out a spray of new growth twenty or thir-
ty feet above the ground, or a new tree standing
on top of an ancient bole and sending its roots
like tentacles down into the ground around the
mother stump. Other trees stand athwart the
fallen bodies of their parents and continually
A REDWOOD FOREST
Before Cutting
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
95
PATE HIGHWAY IN 1919
sre lumbering operations were started
A REDWOOD FOREST
After Cutting
readjust their root system to the decaying trunk
beneath it.
The vitality of the second growth throws up
a circular ring of new and beautiful Redwoods
around the parent stump, and these little trees
come up again and again if cut. If, however,
they are burned several times in succession, this
capacity of shoot reproduction appears to be lost
and there are cases, notably about fifteen miles
north of Arcata, in Humboldt County, where the
highway, passes through three or four miles of
very large and thickly set burned stumps that
show little or no signs of reforestation, proving
that there are conditions where human greed
and human carelessness make it impossible for
even the Redwood to survive.
The age of the Redwood is about half that of
the Sierra Big Tree, and the life of a mature
Redwood runs from 500 to 1,300 years, in many
cases probably rather more.
The diameter of the larger Redwoods is sixteen
feet and over, and the height runs from 100 to
340 feet. Thus, while the diameter is less, the
height is far greater than its cousin, the Big
Tree, with the result and effect of a graceful
beauty rather than vast solidity. It is probable
that trees will be found which will exceed this
maximum altitude, and it is quite possible that
an ultimate height of 350 feet may be recorded.
One would anticipate the discovery of this tall-
est tree on earth either in Bull Creek Flat or
along Redwood Creek.
[96]
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
97
Of course, in discussing the present Red-
woods, one must always bear in mind that
many of the finest groves have fallen to the
axe, judging from the silent records of gigantic
stumps along the Eel River, especially at Sono-
ma Flat, only recently destroyed, to say nothing
of forests to the north long since cut away. It
is probable that the existing groves, with few
exceptions such as Bull Creek Flat, do not rep-
resent the finest groves of Redwoods of fifty
years ago. How needless all this sacrifice of
Humboldt Redwoods has been may be measured
by the fact that few if any of the lumber com-
panies have proven profitable investments, if
their failure to pay dividends is a test of their
commercial success.
On rare occasions, notably where a strong
wind follows long rainy seasons, Redwoods when
exposed on high ridges may be blown down, but
there are no such windfalls as are found in the
forests of Canada. The danger of wind over-
throwing Redwoods, even when in a thin strip
along a road, is very slight if there is reason-
able protection from the contour of the ground.
The original range of the Redwoods extended
from Monterey north along the California coast
to a point a few miles over the Oregon line, em-
bracing an area with a length of about 450 miles
and a width not exceeding forty miles. The
narrowness of this range seems to be determined
by the fog which sweeps in from the Pacific,
and the writer has seen the edge of the fog-bank
clinging closely to the inland limit of the Red-
wood belt. The natives, with the usual human
capacity for error, state that the. Redwoods at-
tract fog, but of course it is the moisture of the
fog deposited on the tops of the Redwoods that
determines their inland distribution. These for-
ests are sometimes so wet that the dripping from
the high crowns is like a thin rain, and at Red-
wood Creek during the past summer it was hard
to tell whether it was raining or not, so satu-
rated with moisture were the foliage and the
trunks, when the fog darkened the forest.
In the southern and larger half of its range,
the Redwood is somewhat broken up in more or
less isolated groves, and the axe of the lumber-
man has now separated these groves still more
widely. In the north there is an almost con-
tinuous series of solid stands of Redwoods, con-
stituting the most magnificent forests in the
world, not even excepting the great Douglas firs
and pines that adjoin them in Oregon.
The Redwoods in the south seem to show a
marked variation from those of the north, being
generally redder in color, and their growth in
rings or circles is much more frequent than in
the groves of Humboldt and Del Norte Coun-
ties. A further study will probably bring out
other characteristic differences.
South of San Francisco the Redwoods are now
chiefly found in the Big Basin, which has been
wisely made into a state park, and in the famous
Santa Cruz grove. Intermediate spots along the
Coast Range, notably at La Honda, are inter-
esting chiefly as showing the pathetic solicitude
with which the owners of surviving trees care for
the battered remnants amid the charred stumps
of former giants. Here at least the owners have
learned that the value of a living tree at a pub-
lic resort or along a highway far exceeds the
value of its lumber. All these southern groves
are mere reminders of the forests that are gone,
but the surviving trees will be carefully
protected.
North of San Francisco, the Muir Woods on
the slopes of Mount Tamalpais are easily ac-
cessible and show something of the forest gran-
deur formerly found in the region of the Golden
Gate. The preservation of this grove is entirely
due to the wise munificence of Mr. William Kent,
who presented it to the nation, and put into
practical form that devotion to California about
which so many of its sons talk eloquently and
do so little to perpetuate.
To the north, Sonoma County has purchased
for public use the Armstrong Grove, and Men-
docino County probably will be impelled to buy
the Montgomery Grove. These last trees are
situated near the highway to the north of Ukiah,
and will be the first grove visited by the north-
bound tourist. If they are purchased by the
town or county, Ukiah will become the entrance
to the Redwood Park series, and like Merced
at the entrance to the Yosemite Valley will de-
rive a great revenue from motor tourists.
After leaving Mendocino County one enters
the great groves of Humboldt and Del Norte
Counties. Here are solid stands of Redwoods
and their subtle charm is so uniform that the ob-
server finds it difficult to distinguish between one
grove and the next.
Four great forests stand out prominently:
They are the groves along the south fork of the
Eel River and the west bank of the main Eel,
culminating in the Bull Creek Flat and the
Dyerville Flat; the immense Redwood Creek
grove ; the Klamath River groves, and the Smith
River groves in Del Norte County. Each has
its peculiar beauty and it is difficult to choose
among them, but it is the trees of Humboldt
which at the present moment are most in peril.
See pages 111, 113, 114, 115.
Destruction
The groves along the south fork of the Eel
River are traversed by the state highway now
O S- r
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[981
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
99
in the process of construction. The route of
this highway made the timber accessible and
the immediate result was the establishment of
small lumber camps that are destroying the
trees along its edge. Not only are the trees
along the road cut down, but the highway itself
in many cases has been injured. It is hard to
find more disastrous bungling even in road
construction.
One logging company, having thoroughly
devastated large areas of its home state in the
east, has recently purchased great tracts of
Redwoods. These have been farmed out in
small plots of forty acres each to various indi-
viduals, who purchased on what was virtually a
stumpage basis, and the cutting was in full
swing in July 1919. The writer drove through
these same groves two years ago, in August
1917, and the change was sickening. This ex-
ample of human greed and waste can scarcely
be described. The pictures on pages 101-102,
104-105 tell the story better than words.
These great trees with their hundreds of feet
of clear timber have among other valuable
qualities the unfortunate characteristic of easy
cleavage or splitting, and so they are doomed to
the ignoble fate of being riven for railroad ties,
for shakes or shingles, and perhaps worst
of all, for grape stakes. Let no one, whether
opposed to Prohibition or not, waste sympathy
on the California wine-growers, whose sad lot
it was last year the fashion to deplore. Grapes
in California command today two or three times
the price they ever brought before, and the
development of the vineyards is the most im-
mediate and threatening danger to the Red-
woods of California. These superb trees are
sacrificed to supply the stakes to carry vines,
because of the practically indestructible char-
acter of their wood, which will stand in the
ground almost indefinitely without rotting.
Survey of the Redwoods in 1919
On August 7, 1919, Stephen Tyng Mather,
Director of National Parks, and the writer left
San Francisco to study the available Red-
wood stands with reference to the selection of a
site for a National Redwood Park, and to ob-
serve at first hand the actual destruction in
progress.
The first night brought the party to Willits,
beyond Ukiah in Mendocino County. Up to
this point there were few or no Redwoods
except the Montgomery grove, which lies to the
west of the highway. From Willits the highway
is under construction, and the Redwoods begin
to appear along the roadside in small and
scattered groups about fifty miles to the north,
and while they are insignificant in comparison
with the great Humboldt groves, nevertheless
these trees are highly important in connection
with the highway and should be preserved.
The highway itself has not been built with
an intelligent regard for the preservation of
natural features, and the usual wasteful and
destructive methods common to road contractors
are everywhere followed.
In the construction of motor roads here and
elsewhere in California, and for that matter in
Oregon and Washington, the commissions in
charge should employ a landscape engineer ; that
is, an engineer with some elemental sympathy
with nature should supervise the work. The
contractors should not be allowed to leave a
wide area of devastation adjoining the road-
way. Unnecessary vandalism, such as wrapping
wire cables around the bases of the trees to sup-
port derricks, should be stopped ; but, no doubt,
all this will come after the trees and the scenery
have been largely destroyed.
As to the trees along the highway in Men-
docino County, the possibility of their pro-
tection depends entirely upon the action of the
Highway Commission in securing a right of way
which should not be less than an average width
of 300 yards.
The Redwoods grove at Hicks Camp is the
first important camping site to be passed, and
about twelve miles south of Garberville is the
Sterns Camp grove, which is about ten acres in
extent with a width of about 300 yards, and
is a fine stand on a level flat. At this point it
becomes evident that any park in connection
with the highway must take in the entire erosion
valley of the south fork of the Eel from crest
to crest. The skyline with its superb trees is
nearly as important as the flat bottom and much
more important than the intermediate area. The
river valley is narrow, in fact, little more than
a wide gorge, with a level bottom, and the timber
on the slopes has less commercial value than
that upon the flat. If the timber along the
highway is to be preserved, a relatively small
amount of additional cost would save the entire
valley. While it may not be necessary to go
far beyond the crest, nevertheless as the trees
are exposed a substantial amount of timber be-
hind probably will have to be taken to protect
them.
There is a fine grove at Red Mountain, and a
little beyond the first cutting appears.
At a point six miles south of Garberville the
first very large stand occurs. Here we were
shocked to learn that the California Highway
Commission not only had failed to acquire a
[100]
TYPICAL LUMBER MILL
On the State Highway, South Fork of Eel River, Humboldt County. Photograph by Chas. P. Punchard
August 1919. (See Page 107)
GRAPE STAKE CUTTING
On the South Fork of Eel River, Humboldt County. Photograph by Chas. P, Punchard
August 1919. (See Page 107)
[101]
102 ]
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
103
sufficient right of way to protect the timber
along the route, but actually had contracted
with the owners of the land for the removal of
the timber. In other words, the Commission
bought a hundred foot strip with the under-
standing that the owners should cut off the only
thing of value, namely, the timber. This in-
credible folly can only be explained by the
widespread belief that a strip of timber along
the road will blow down unless covered and
protected by the forest behind.
The writer does not intend to enter into a
discussion of this question, but it seems to be
universally believed in the Redwood country
that trees blow down if the adjoining forest
is cut off. There is but the slightest basis for
this tradition. Trees on ridges which have been
exposed by cutting, or an isolated strip of trees
standing across the line of prevailing winds,
may in exceptional cases be blown down, be-
cause the Redwoods, like the other great trees
of California and Oregon, are without taproots.
The writer (who has been through the Redwood
belt twice from end to end and has visited
practically every grove of importance) never
has seen a single instance where trees have
been blown down en masse, and he has seen
again and again isolated trees and groups of
trees in most exposed positions, that have stood
for years in defiance of wind and storm. This
is particularly significant as many of these
trees were imperfect or burned at the core and
consequently had but insufficient support.
This myth of trees being blown down has
been exploded again and again, but in order to
kill definitely this old woman's tale it must be
made the subject of an authoritative report by
the Bureau of Forestry. The superstition stands
precisely in the same class of evidence as does
the silly story universally believed by trappers
that the porcupine shoots its quills. It is strange
that the one place where misinformation about
zoology and the habits of animals flourishes most
is among backwoodsmen and even guides, just
as ignorance of the true principles of heredity
is so widespread among the breeders of horses
and dogs. In the same way, men in the lumber
country are surprised when a skeptic from
the outside world ventures to question the sacro-
sanct doctrine that, if cutting in a forest is once
started, all the trees must be lumbered or they
will be blown over by the wind. Possibly this
belief has been encouraged by the wiser lumber-
men for ulterior purposes.
The mere fact that there is little or no evi-
dence of trees blowing over even though in the
most exposed positions, and the further fact that
numberless trees, isolated or in groups, which
have been deprived of all their supporting trees,
stand for years without falling, are of little
weight against this venerable superstition.
This yarn is encountered throughout the
north, perhaps with rather more justification,
among the yellow pine forests, but even there
the writer has failed to find any evidence for it,
although he does not pretend to have covered
the ground as in the case of the Redwoods.
Among the Redwoods one of the most noticeable
features is the absence of fallen trees, such as
cover the ground everywhere in Canada and the
northern greenwood forests.
Another superstition of the same character is,
that Redwood trees and timber are not injured
by burning over because of the fact that these
trees, like nearly all other very large trees of
California, are resistant to fire by reason of
their thick bark, and that many of them show
scars of ancient conflagrations, even in the damp
forests of the north. The result is that there has
been a great deal of deliberate burning of brush,
both preceding and following lumbering opera-
tions. In the ordinary lumbering operations the
trees are felled and the masses of fallen ma-
terial brush, shattered branches and some-
times trunks are then burned. This is said to
be necessary in order to saw up the giant trunks,
several reasons being given, chiefly the difficulty
of lumbering among masses of fallen debris.
The statement is also made that the workmen
object to the alleged danger of cutting unless
the rubbish has been burned.
However that may be, the burning results
in very substantial destruction of good timber,
estimated in some cases as high as thirty per
cent. This proportion was said to be established
by an experiment made many years ago by the
A. B. Hammond Lumber Company, which has
been unusually intelligent in the utilization of
its holdings. A comparison was made between
two tracts of equal area, one burned over in
the usual wasteful manner and the other logged
without burning, and the result showed that the
burning destroyed about thirty per cent, of the
timber. Whether or not there is any economy
in the method of lumbering with assistance of
fire, the public has a right to put a stop to this
destruction of good timber because the time is
coming when wood will be as valuable in
California as it now is in Europe. What action
would the state take, and rightly take, if
the hotels in New York threw away one-third
of the food which was purchased to supply
their guests on the theory that it was their prop-
[ 1041
SPLITTING THE REDWOODS
Along the Highway, South Fork of Eel River, Humboldt County. Photograph by Chas. P. Punchard
August 1919. (See Page 107)
KK*3jfiS&
,-,^.-^ ->-.
<**+ -"** r
LUMBERING ALONG THE STATE HIGHWAY
South Fork of Eel River, Humboldt County. Photograph by Chas. P/Punchard
August 1919. (See Page 107)
[105]
[106]
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
107
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
Mammals
W. T. HORNADAY.
Birds
LEE S. CRANDALL.
Departments; :
Aquarium
C. H. TOWNSEND.
Reptiles
RAYMOND L. DITMAR&.
WILLIAM BEEBE. Honorary Curator, Birds
Published bi-monthly at the Office of the Society,
111 Broadway, New York City.
Yearly by Mail, $1.00.
MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS.
Copyright, 1919, by the New York Zoological Society.
Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy
and the proof reading of his contribution.
ELWIN R. SANBORN,
Editor and Official Photographer
VOL. XXII, No. 5.
SEPTEMBER 1919
erty? Surely this is one of the most glaring
examples of the necessity of the state interfering
with the management of private property to pre-
vent its wasteful exploitation. Countless tons
of slabs and lumber also are burned to get
them "out of the way." Are there no by-prod-
ucts from lumber such as there are in the refin-
ing of petroleum or in the conversion of hogs
into bacon ?
In Garberville, we were received by a group
of citizens headed by Judge F. A. Cutler and
A. E. Connick, who showed our party over the
road as far as Eureka, and pointed out the lum-
bering operations in full progress along the
road, examples of which are shown in the ac-
companying illustrations on page 105.
The railroad ties were purchased under the
authority of the United States Railroad Admin-
istration, but in justice to the officials it may be
said that they did not realize the vast injury
to the state highways when they authorized the
use of Redwood timber for ties. The Railroad
Administration, through its chief, Mr. R. G.
Sproul, and Mr. H. W. Ellicott, Purchasing
Agent of the Northwestern Railroad, immedi-
ately stopped the buying of ties from areas
which would come within the proposed reser-
vation, as soon as the matter was officially
brought to their attention by the writer, and
they expressed their entire sympathy with the
plans for the preservation of these trees.
The cutting has been done in almost every
case along the east bank of the south fork of
the Eel River and on the very edge of the high-
way, and while the devastation is appalling, nev-
ertheless the damage if arrested at the present
time can ultimately be minimized.
Some distance below Garberville, the highway
leaves the river and does not reenter the Red-
woods until just above Phillipsville, where there
is a fine stand of Redwoods on the left bank. At
Phillipsville itself there are five acres of very
fine trees on both sides of the road, and again
at Fish Creek there is a four-acre tract of Red-
woods which has not yet been injured by cutting.
Below Miranda, on Logan's Flat, there is a
fine stand on both sides of the road some four
or five hundred acres in extent. This is offered
for sale, but as yet there has been no cutting.
The first cutting below Garberville appears
at Elk Creek, where a few trees have been cut
for grape stakes, and more cutting appears a
little below. Further down the river there is
another stand of about 200 acres of bottom
land, with more or less cutting. Further down
again on the left bank is a very fine, thick
stand of Redwoods, 700 acres in extent. This
tract is not in immediate danger because it be-
longs to the A. B. Hammond Lumber Co., which
is not cutting in this section. These trees un-
doubtedly should be included in any park along
the highway. Below this point and near the river
and highway, cutting is actively going on and
there is serious danger of the entire destruction
of the flat.
Near here and on the right side of the high-
way a stand of timber belongs to the University
of Minnesota. It is reasonable to assume that
a university an educational institution may
be interested in the permanent preservation of
these trees.
Below this again there are some small mills.
Most of the cutting here has been finished, and
while the destruction has been very serious
further work has been suspended. See page 96.
Further down the river at Pepper Wood the
forest has been greatly exposed by cutting,
showing again that trees will stand along these
river flats even though left entirely without
shelter.
In connection with the theory that exposed
trees blow down, it should be stated that the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad owns a few Red-
woods on its right of way between the tracks
and the main Eel River, and that some of these
trees, being absolutely isolated and in a very
exposed position, have been overthrown by the
wind.
After these scenes of devastation and threats
of worse, we turned into Bull Creek Flat, per-
haps the finest forest in the world. Bull Creek
flows into the left side of the south fork of the
Eel River just above Dyerville, where the south
fork joins the main Eel. It is a magnificent
stand of trees, some 10,000 acres in extent. See
pages 90 and 106.
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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
109
The total area which must be taken for the
Highway Park, from the upper reaches of the
South Fork down to the mouth of Bull Creek,
contains about 10,000 acres in addition to the
Bull Creek grove.
Bull Creek Flat belongs to the Pacific Lum-
ber Company, except two sections in the upper
part, which are the property of the ^Metropoli-
tan Lumber Company. The officials of both
these companies expressed their sympathy with
the park project so far as it relates to Bull
Creek Flat. This tract is said to contain one
enormous tree, possibly the largest Redwood arid
the tallest tree in the world.
Immediately opposite the mouth of Bull
Creek is Dyerville Flat, a triangular area be-
tween the two forks of the Eel River. At this
point is located South Fork railway station, and
it will be the natural entrance to the Park. The
trees have been cleared away around the station
to the extent of 150 or 200 yards and the Pacific
Lumber Company has just begun lumbering at
this point, in September 1919. If this cutting
is continued it will greatly injure the approach
to the proposed park. The reason given for
commencing lumbering operations here is the
shortage of man power, making it desirable to
log on a flat and in the immediate vicinity of the
railroad in order to keep the mills supplied.
This cutting is the one great danger to the
proposed park and is a most serious situation
as yet unprovided for. See page 108.
Below the junction of the South Fork, the
timber on the right bank of the main Eel River
has been entirely destroyed and the landscape
presents a scene comparable only to the devas-
tated regions of France. Few Redwoods are
left, but a magnificent example has been pro-
vided to show how the whole country will appear
when lumbering operations are extended to the
west bank. Reforestation is very slight and
many places show no signs of regeneration. The
stumps have been charred and burned, and the
land lies worthless.
This cut over area on the right bank would
be a suitable site for reforestation experiments
under the present California Forestry Board.
The land could be acquired, and reforested at
nominal cost. It is only a question of time when
the state, for its own protection, will be forced
to undertake this work.
The fundamental tragedy of the whole Red-
wood situation lies in the fact that these great
trees are nearly all in the hands of private own-
ers who cannot reasonably be expected to sacri-
fice their holdings for public benefit. The state
and nation, however foolish thev mav have been
in giving away these lands, must no>v buy back
at least a large portion of them.
On the east bank of the Eel River for many
miles below the Forks there are very few Red-
woods in sight of the river except at Fortuna,
where 2,300 acres of fine Redwoods have been
preserved temporarily and are known as the
Carson Woods. This grove is a mile or so east
of the highway and should be preserved as a
local park.
Along the lower stretches of the Eel River
below Scotia, the Pacific Lumber Company is
said to have checked reforestation by cutting
during successive years the sprouting saplings
which bravely tried to lift their heads around
the old stumps. This was done under the im-
pression that the land could be made available
for pasturage. It has proved a failure and the
only result has been to destroy in many places
the chance of reforestation.
Below the forks on the left bank there is a
magnificent stand of trees extending from the
water's edge to the crest of the main slope,
nearly all of which belongs to the Pacific Lum-
ber Company. This area is some 20,000 acres
in extent and the highway runs through it. It
should be preserved, although the cost would be
great, because of the size of the tract and the
fine quality and thickness of the timber. Below
this forest, the land on both sides of the river
has been almost entirely destroyed, so far as
timber is concerned.
At Eureka there was great interest shown on
the occasion of our visit. The citizens were
organizing actively to put a stop to the destruc-
tion of the Redwoods along the highway. Public
meetings were held, which developed later into
affirmative action to be described later. This
enthusiasm was due in great degree to the recent
visit of Secretary of Agriculture 'Houston and
Col. Graves, Chief of the United States Bureau
of Forestry, who had aroused the people of
Humboldt County to the importance of protec-
tive measures.
Along the coast from Eureka north about
twenty miles, there is little or nothing but
cleared country, and beyond Arcata the road
runs between some three or four miles of charred
stumps which show no signs of reforestation.
This condition appears to be entirely due to
repeated fires.
At Orick, on the Big Lagoon, we passed the
lower end of the Redwood Creek grove, one of
the very best stands of Redwood in Humboldt
County, approximately 50,000 acres in extent;
the lower part largely owned by the A. B. Ham-
mond Lumber Company and the upper part by
110
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
the Sage Lumber Company. This stand of Red-
woods is largely mixed with spruce and the
ground is carpeted with ferns in great abun-
dance and variety.
One of the most conspicuous features of these
Redwood forests, especially in Del Norte
County and the northern portions of Humboldt,
is the profusion of ferns. It is said that some
thirty species of ferns are found in these woods.
This Redwood Creek stand is as yet untouched
and should be carefully considered for a national
park, because the timber being inaccessible can
be acquired at a relatively small cost.
The most important groves north of this sec-
tion are on the Klamath River and also on the
Smith River in Del Norte County, known as
Mills Creek grove. There are several other
groves in this region and the Redwood stand
throughout Del Norte County is exception-
ally fine. The trees, perhaps, are less healthy
but they are larger, more weird and grotesque in
their contours, and while less valuable for tim-
ber, are even better adapted for preservation in
a park. As Del Norte County is somewhat re-
mote it may be immune for a short time from
serious inroads by the axe, and there is no doubt
that the Smith River Redwoods should be ac-
quired ultimately for a national park.
On our return from the north the writer was
called upon, as one of the representatives of the
Redwoods League, to return to Eureka and take
part in the park movement which had made
great progress since our first visit. The citizens
of Eureka had brought together at a public
meeting all the small holders who were actually
operating along the highway. As a result of
this remarkable public demonstration, the lum-
bermen agreed for the sum of $60,000 to sus-
pend cutting and to give two-year options on
their property at reasonable figures. Thirty
thousand dollars of the money needed were
donated by Stephen T. Mather and by William
Kent, both Vice-Presidents of the Redwoods
League. The remaining $30,000 were supplied
from the county funds of Humboldt County.
These options were purchased upon the under-
standing that they would be exercised when due
and the lands paid for by special county bond
issues. The state of California is expected to
furnish a general bond issue for the purchase of
the remaining timber lands on the south fork of
the Eel, together with the Bull Creek and Dyer-
ville Flats, containing in all some 20,000 or
25,000 acres.
The great stand of Redwoods on the left bank
of the main Eel River below the forks was left
out of consideration temporarily because of the
large sum involved -in its purchase, but if the
preservation of the South Fork is once secured
public interest will inevitably demand the ex-
tension of the Park to include these trees. It
is perfectly obvious from the aroused public sen-
timent in Humboldt County and elsewhere in
California that the time is at hand when lumber
companies will not be allowed to destroy such
superb groves for a net return often absurdly
small.
The protection of these Redwoods must be
secured by Humboldt County and by the State
of California, but the Federal Government
also must do its share by establishing a large
National Redwoods Park. To obtain Con-
gressional action is a matter of many months,
but a resolution has been offered in Congress by
Representative Lea, calling for an investigation
of the whole Redwoods problem with a view to
the establishment of such a park. Hereto-
fore national parks have been carved out of
the public domain and it will be a new departure
for Congress to buy private lands for public use
on any such scale as will be necessary here.
The Redwoods League looks confidently to
private holders of timber to donate either groves
of Redwoods which are within the proposed park
area (and several such donations have already
been offered), but it also expects to receive gifts
of Redwoods which can be exchanged for land
within the park area. There are many patriotic
Californians who will be only too glad to
donate funds for the preservation of the Red-
woods when they realize that there is an organi-
zation ready to accept, administer these groves
and turn them over to the State or Nation when
the proper time arrives.
The inhabitants of Del Norte and Humboldt
Counties have scarcely awakened to the possi-
bilities of fabulous wealth in their Redwoods as
an attraction for visitors. The annual value of
the tourist crop to southern California is said to
be about $80,000,000, although natural curiosi-
ties other than the climate sometimes have to
manufactured. As an amusing example of the
business acumen of southern California, one may
mention Ramona's "place of marriage" and hei
"grave," at San Diego, to both of which the
tourist is religiously conducted and gravel}
assured that, if Ramona ever had lived othei
than in the brain of a sentimental novelist, she
would have been married and buried at these
mythical shrines.
When Humboldt and Del Norte Counties
awaken to a full realization of the revolutior
effected by automobiles, which will flood tht
country with tourists as soon as the highways
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS
The tree on left is eighteen feet in diameter. Courtesy of Charles Willis Ward
(See Page 97)
[1111
112
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
are completed, they will find that a Redwood
grove, such as Bull Creek Flat, is an attraction
that is worth to the county many times the full
net value of the timber contained in it. When
the last Redwoods are destroyed, towns like
Eureka and railroads like the Northwestern
Pacific Railway will be without resources, and
will die away like many another predecessor in
the United States and Canada.
All these are purely commercial considera-
tions. It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the
crime involved in the destruction of the oldest
and tallest trees on earth. The cutting of a Se-
quoia for grape stakes or railroad ties (and an
eighteen-foot tree was cut this summer for that
purpose along the new state highway) is like
breaking up one's grandfather's clock for kind-
ling to save the trouble of splitting logs at the
woodpile, or lighting one's pipe with a Greek
manuscript to save the trouble of reaching for
the matches.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the
priceless works of classic art were "needed"
for lime, and statues by Phidias and Praxiteles
were slacked down for this purpose, but the
men who did it are today rightly dubbed
''vandals and barbarians." What then will the
next generation call us if we continue to destroy
these priceless trees because lumber is "needed"
for grape stakes and railroad ties ?
It will cost money to preserve the Redwoods,
many millions; but California has no choice.
Either the amount needed to save the groves
must be supplied today, or else a far greater
sum will be required ten years hence to purchase
a butchered and isolated tenth part of the
forests. Those are the only alternatives. If
the groves are bought in their present condition
and at relatively small cost, it will be a great
innovation because heretofore Americans have
followed the wasteful policy of recklessly ex-
ploiting wild life, forests and streams, and
then as soon as the destruction is complete, the
policy is changed, game is reintroduced and
attempts are made to reforest the mountains at
vast cost. But Redwoods never can be replaced.
In the negotiations for the purchase of tim-
ber lands, the officers of the Redwoods League
found sympathetic and cordial support for the
park among the lumbermen. They know the
value of the timber only too well. The timber
is their property, and their business is to cut
and to realize on it. It is not fair for a com-
munity to ask them to hold this timber, to
pay taxes on it and then to sacrifice their finan-
cial interests for the public welfare. It is the duty
of the county, the state and the nation to pur-
chase their holdings at the proper value. The
question involved is not local, it is a state, a
national, in fact an international concern, as the
benefit derived from the preservation of the
Redwoods will be for the people of the na-
tion and the world at large. There is no reason
why the lumbermen should abandon their in-
terests without adequate remuneration, although
in many cases individuals and companies will
donate a certain portion of their timber, or sell
at low figures. If the state had been suffi-
ciently intelligent, before building the highways
which made the timber accessible, to have ap-
proached the lumbermen properly and to have
made it a condition precedent that a strip of
timber on either side of the road should be do-
nated, no doubt in many cases the lumbermen
would have found it greatly to their interest to
accept the proposal. The fact that this was not
done was the fault of the state, its highway com-
mission and its legislature, and not the fault of
the lumbermen.
Experience has shown that the only effective,
persistent and intelligent conservators of wild
game have been sportsmen who have evolved
from game killers into game protectors, and
personally the writer believes that the lumber
owners themselves, who are among the finest
men on the coast, will be found to be most
generous and helpful in any scheme looking to
the preservation of the timber. The writer says
this not out of any desire to placate the lumber-
men, but from a genuine belief, based on the
character of the men he has interviewed, that
this will prove to be the case.
A distinction must be made between the
owners who are doing the lumbering themselves,
and absentee owners who have no interest in the
country, no knowledge of the trees, and who are
operating through local agents. These agents
have no choice except to obey orders, and the
absentee landlords have no interest in the
country except to extract an income, and they
care not a rap what happens to the land after
it has been devastated and plundered.
The Redwoods League
Such were the conditions when the "Save the
Redwoods League" was formally organized in
San Francisco in July 1919. This League
had its origin in a trip made in 1917 by the
writer in company with Prof. Henry Fairfield
Osborn and Dr. John C. Merriam through the
groves of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte
Counties. The grandeurs of the Bull Creek Flat
Grove and its threatened destruction weighed
so heavily upon the members of this party that
a letter was addressed to Governor Stephens of
REDWOODS ON KLAMATH RIVER
One of the features of these Redwood forests is the growth of ferns. Courtesy of Charles Willis Ward
(See Page 97)
[113]
KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS
Courtesy of Charles Willis Ward, Esq.
(See Page 97)
[114]
CAMPING SITES
Among the Klamath River Redwoods. Courtesy of Charles Willis Ward
(See Page 97)
115 ]
116
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
California, who was about to visit the Redwoods
in Humboldt County, asking him to take steps
to preserve this stand of giant trees. See page
90.
During 1918 the writer again went to Cali-
fornia and endeavored to interest the California
Highway Commission in securing a strip of tim-
ber along the new highways, but owing to the
war and other causes no substantial progress
was made until the winter of 1918-19, when Dr.
Merriam and the writer finally succeeded in
enlisting the support of a group of patriotic
Californians in the proposed League, which was
then organized as follows:
President
FRANKLIN K. LANE
Secretary and Treasurer
ROBERT G. SPROUL
Executive Committee
JOHN C. MERRIAM, Chairman
Madison Grant Henry S. Graves
William E. Colby Stephen Tyng Mather
George M. Cornwall Ralph P. Merritt
Wigginton E. Creed Charles F. Stern
William H. Crocker Walter Mulford
William Kent Benjamin Ide Wheeler
Henry Fairfteld Osborn Ray Lyman Wilbur
Frank S. Daggett Charles B. Wing
Joseph D. Grant Wilbur L. Jepson
This League is at present under the active
direction of Dr. John C. Merriam, of the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, California, and
to him all applications for membership should
be addressed.
Subscriptions also of any amount are greatly
needed.
The purposes of the League are as follows:
( 1 ) To purchase Redwood groves by private
subscriptions and by county bond issues.
(2) To secure a state bond issue to buy
the finest Redwood groves along state highways.
(3) To establish through Federal aid a Na-
tonal Redwoods Park.
(4<) To obtain through state and county aid
the protection of timber along the scenic high-
ways now in course of construction throughout
California.
(5) To encourage the state to purchase cut-
over Redwood areas for reforestation by natural
means, or by replanting where repeated fires
have made sprout reproduction impossible.
Committees have been formed to study the
subjects of Redwood distribution, variation and
the most efficient commercial use of Redwood
products, in the belief that nearly all the pur-
poses for which this lumber is now used can be
adequately served by second growth trees.
A committee of ladies has been formed and
the assistance of automobile and other associa-
tions and clubs in California has been enlisted.
The salvation of these great trees probably
will depend on two factors just entering into
active political life, one the automobilists and
the other the women voters. The California
Redwoods League is primarily indebted to
two men, Stephen Tyng Mather and William
Kent, for the funds to start work. These gentle-
men guaranteed $10,000 and thus made possible
the preliminary organization and later made
other subscriptions as described above.
Conditions in Oregon and Washington
After leaving California Mr. Mather and the
writer traversed the entire breadth of central
Oregon and Washington, motoring up the east
side of the Cascades, down the Columbia high-
way to Portland, and up the Cowlitz Valley to
Mount Ranier in Washington, thence southward
through the Willamette Valley in Oregon, over
to Klamath Falls and then south through the
Pitt River Canon back to San Francisco, a total
of about 2,200 miles.
Preliminary steps were taken for the organi-
zation of leagues in Portland and in Seattle,
under the direction of the ablest men on the
coast. The objects in view were to preserve the
timber along the main roads and along the shores
of lakes and rivers, and to protect by the estab-
lishment of state parks the high peaks and
crests of the Cascade Mountains. Both Oregon
and Washington are constructing a system of
great highways without adequate protection to
the scenic features along the route.
Among other purposes in view are the exten-
sion of Crater Lake National Park to include
the Diamond Lake region, so that the finest
game district in Oregon can be protected as a
game sanctuary. Crooked River Canon also is
under consideration as a national monument or
state park.
Burney Falls in California should be pre-
served as a state park, but this is a matter
outside of the scope of the Redwoods League
and must be handled by the state. The sale of
the wonderful beach road south of Monterey,
known as the Seventeen Mile Drive, and the
threatened destruction of its extraordinary
cypress forests, unique in the whole world, for a
real estate development scheme is another state
matter which must demand attention.
The most immediate need in Oregon and
Washington is for highway commissions of
greater vision than those that are now con-
structing roads in accordance with obsolete
methods. The state highway leading from
Tacoma to Mount Ranier recently ran through
the welcome shade of giant pines and firs, but
STATE HIGHWAY THROUGH THE REDWOODS. HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, IN 1917
Photograph by the Freeman Art Co., Eureka, California
[117]
118
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN
the Washington Highway Commission cut a
swath 300 feet wide and then burned the timber
against the adjacent forests instead of in the
middle of the strip. The result is that one
drives for miles through a blasted desert of
burned and twisted stumps of what was once a
magnificent forest, while the trees on either side
have been needlessly scorched and charred with
fire, and are frequently girdled by the steel
ropes used by the contractors as supports for
derricks. All this is reckless waste, and the
only defense that the writer heard was that the
inhabitants of the state had not yet awakened
to a realization of the value of trees and that
road builders have "always cut a wide strip for
a road so that the sun could dry the mud." The
fact that modern roads are concrete and do not
need drying has not yet come to their attention.
The old-fashioned method of burning under-
brush to "improve the forests," an inheritance
from Indian days and locally known at "Piute
forestry/' is still in the ascendant.
The great fight, however, of both the Oregon
and the Washington Leagues will be to induce
the state not to build highways through timbered
tracts unless a strip of timber on either side is
first secured as part of the right of way. Such
an arrangement nearly always can be made with
the owners of the timber if the reservation of a
strip of trees is made a condition precedent to
the construction of the road. A notable example
is the new highway now under construction from
Ashland to Klamath Falls, Oregon, through
some thirty miles of sugar and yellow pine and
Douglas fir. If the trees are preserved, this
will be one of the most beautiful roads in the
world; if they are cut, the road will pass
through a desert.
On the whole, the results of the summer's
work. the complete organization of the League
in California, and the start made in Oregon and
Washington, have undoubtedly inaugurated a
movement which will have far-reaching effects.
The energy of the earnest and able men now
in charge of the California League, and the tre-
mendous popular support behind it, probably
will solve the problem of the Redwoods of Hum-
boldt County. The forests of the north may
have to await action by the federal government ;
but if the trees along the south fork of the Eel
are saved, public sentiment will be overwhelm-
ingly in favor of their preservation.
The task of the Leagues in Oregon and Wash-
ington will be harder. The population is less
dense and has far less respect for trees. The
magnificent Columbia highway, which is prov-
ing to be a profitable investment for Port-
land, may serve as an example, but even there
the promoters failed to secure the land along
the right of way and will have to pay out
large sums to secure the continuance not only
of the forests but of the water supply of the
falls along the route. The borders of the high-
way with its trees could have been secured at
the start with but small expenditure. When
lumbering operations have completed the destruc-
tion of the timber on the mountains above the
highway, and Multnomah Falls shall have
dwindled away, Oregon probably will awaken
to the necessity of preserving such scenic fea-
tures as then remain intact.
In Washington, the contrast between the cool
and wooded road within Mount Ranier National
Park, which has been built without injury to
the trees, and the devastated horror which the
State Highway Commission has constructed out-
side of the Park boundaries, inevitably will
strengthen the hands of the Washington League
and perhaps enable it to save the trees along the
highway between Tacoma and Seattle, where
beautiful forests at the side of the road are
now sacrificed for fire wood.
As this goes to press, the welcome news comes
from Bend, Oregon, that the Shevlin-Hixon
Lumber Company is considering the creation of
a memorial to the late Thomas Shevlin by the
dedication of the timber in Tumalo Canon and
perhaps along the highway to the purpose.
With the co-operation of Col. Graves and the
Bureau of Forestry, other stretches of timber
along new roads may thereafter be set aside
systematically so that the Forest Reserves as
well as the National Parks can be utilized by
the public as driveways and camp sites. The
increase of motor traffic especially along the
proposed system of highways to connect the im-
portant national parks in the far west will make
these proposals widely popular.
Throughout the Pacific states there are every-
where evidence of the old competition between
the growing enlightenment of the people and the
forces of destruction. Old frontier conditions
have passed waste of natural resources, scenic
or otherwise, sooner or later will be checked and
a proper appreciation of the value of an unde-
filed nature will succeed but the problem of
today is to save for coming generations some
substantial portion of our national endowment.
The author desires to make special acknowl-
edgment to Mr. Chas. Punchard, the talented
landscape architect of the National Park Serv-
ice, who accompanied Mr. Mather and himself,
for many of the photographs used in this paper.
fnrk
THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY is a private scientific association which, under
contract with the City of New York, is vested with the sole control and management of
the New York Zoological Park, and of the New York Aquarium.
The Society is national in scope and appeals to all Americans who are interested in
the preservation of our heritage of wild life. The forces at work for the destruction of
animals and birds are multiplying rapidly, and the Society believes that great efforts are
necessary to preserve and protect the remnants.
To those who are interested in the study and preservation of all forms of wild life
in North America, the Society offers an economical, efficient and permanent organization
devoted to that end. The work contemplated for the future is as follows:
1. Endowment Fund. The increase of the pres-
ent Endowment Fund is the most imperative need.
Without a substantial addition, either by donations
or bequests, the Society will not be on a satisfac-
tory financial basis, and its work will continue to
be hampered for lack of funds. The present Fund
is less than $375,000.
2. Zoological Park. Development of the Zoo-
logical Park, 264 acres in extent, and the care and
increase of its collection of over 4,000 animals.
3. Aquarium Development; Development and
administration of the New York Aquarium, and
the extension of its marine exhibits of nearly 6,000
specimens.
4. Aquarium Improvements. The alteration of
the present Aquarium Building so as to remove
the boilers that are daily flooded at high tide, to
a site outside the present building. The space
then could be devoted to additional exhibits. Sev-
eral more rooms are needed, also, by the adminis-
trative force, and for research work in connection
with the scientific utilization of the immense mass
of gross material that is available. This change
would cost upward of $100,000.
5. Pension Fund. The enlargement of the Per-
manent Pension Fund for employees. The Soci-
ety's contribution to the present fund is $8,000,
of which $4,335 is derived from a fund of $100,000
provided through the generosity of the late An-
drew Carnegie. An additional $150,000 is required
to provide adequate relief for widows, the perma-
nence of the present pension plan and to relieve
the Society of its annual contribution of $3,665.
6. Tropical Station. Maintenance of the Tropi-
cal Zoological Station in South America for study
and research work in tropical life, the publication
of the scientific results obtained, and as a source
of supply for the Park and Aquarium collections.
7. Publication. Scientific studies on the care
of wild animals and fishes in captivity. This work
should be accomplished in 1920.
8. Publication in Zoologica of "a series of scien-
tific articles of great value on living animals, and
in Zoopathologica of medical and pathological ma-
terial on the diseases of wild animals.
9. Pathology and Anatomy. Research and in-
vestigation in pathology and anatomy through the
Prosector's department.
10. Photographs. Publication in permanent
form of photographs taken at the Park of great
value to science.
11. Wild Life Paintings. Completion of the gal-
lery of oil paintings to include all American spe-
cies of large mammals and of such other mam-
mals and birds as are threatened with extermina-
tion. These pictures are of great artistic merit
and are prepared from accurate studies gathered
in the habitat of each animal. Nineteen pictures
already have been completed and hung in the Ad-
ministration Building.
12. Heads and Horns Museum: The erection
and equipment of a museum on Baird Court to con-
tain the National Collection of Heads and Horns.
This Museum will be open to the public, and will
contain the present collection of 870 specimens,
which is already of unique value, as many of the
species represented are verging on extinction. Un-
der existing conditions abroad, the Society will
have the opportunity of securing many record
specimens at low prices. The fund has been
partly subscribed, but more will be needed to in-
crease the variety and number of the collection.
13. Zoological Library. Establishment of a zoo-
logical library, greatly needed for research work
at the Park. It is the intention of the Society
to install in the library at the Zoological Park
all the literature available, that relates to the
present world-wide conservation movement. The
literature on this subject is widely scattered,
but the best of it should be gathered and made
available for those engaged in preserving our heri-
tage of wild life and forests. Adequate funds
have not been available for the library, and scien-
tific work, even for the identification of specimens,
has suffered accordingly.
14. Game Protection. Establishment of Game
Sanctuaries in the National Forest Reserves. This
is the most practical plan for permanently pro-
tecting American wild life. The success of the
Yellowstone National Park as a game sanctuary
has been abundantly demonstrated.
15. Game Protection. Maintenance of existing
game laws, and the extension of laws prohibiting
the sale of game, spring shooting, use of automatic
guns, and in the promotion of closed seasons for
species threatened with extinction. Appeals for
financial help for these causes are constantly re-
ceived from all over the United States and Canada.
16. Stream Protection. Many of the finest
American rivers and streams have been polluted
by dye waste, chemicals from pulp mills, sawdust,
sewage from towns and villages, and other defil-
ing and poisonous materials. The result has been
the destruction of many valuable and interesting
fishes, notably salmon and shad, and the trans-
formation of beautiful woodland streams into a\
menace to public health and a blot on the land-
scape. The Society intends to attempt to abate
these evil conditions and prevent their extension,
as soon as funds are available.
A Notable Event for Bird Lovers
'The World's Most Perfect Zoological Monograph'
TEMMINCK'S TRAGOPAN, Tragopan Temmincki (J. E. Gray)
(Specimen color-plate from volume one)
A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS
By WILLIAM BEEBE
Published by the New York Zoological Society, through the co-operation of Col. Anthony R. Kuser.
equally to the layman and the scientist. Only 400
copies are available for sale in America. Volume I
is now ready for distribution. Price is $63.50 for
each volume.
To be completed in four royal quarto volumes,
richly illustrated with reproductions in color of
paintings by Thorburn, Lodge, Knight, Fuertes and
Jones, also many photogravures and maps. It appeals
Prospectus, specimen plate and subscription blank will be mailed on application.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ZOOLOGICAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY.
GENERAL INFORMATION
ABOUT THE
fork Honlogtrai
MEMBERSHIP IN THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Membership in the Zoological Society is open to all interested in the objects of the organiza-
tion, who desire to contribute toward its support.
The cost of Annual Membership is $10 per year, which entitles the holder to admission to
the Zoological Park on all pay days, when he may see the collections to the best advantage.
Members are entitled to the Annual Report, bi-monthly Bulletins, Zoologica, Zoopathologica,
privileges of the Administration Building, all lectures and special exhibitions, and ten compli-
mentary tickets to the Zoological Park for distribution.
Any Annual Member may become a Life Member by the payment of $200. A subscriber
of $1,000 becomes a Patron; $2,500, an Associate Founder; $5,000, a Founder; $10,000, a
Founder in Perpetuity, and $25,000 a Benefactor.
Application for membership may be given to the Chief Clerk, in the Zoological Park;
C. H. Townsend, N. Y. Aquarium, Battery Park, New York City, or forwarded to the General
Secretary, No. Ill Broadway, New York City.
ZOOLOGICAL PARK
The Zoological Park is open every day in the year, free, except Monday and Thursday of
each week, when admission is charged. Should either of these days fall on a holiday no admis-
sion fee is charged. The opening and closing hours are from 10 o'clock A. M. until one-half
hour before sunset.
NEW YORK AQUARIUM
The Aquarium is open free to the public, every day in the year : April to September, 9 A. M.
to 5 P. M.; October to March, 10 A. M. to 4 P. M.
PUBLICATIONS
Annual Report No. 1 Paper
"2 "
' 8 and 4, each . .
5 " 6, " ..
7 " 8, "
" 9 " 10, " . .
" 11, 12, 18, 14, 15.
16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, each...
Our Vanishing Wild Life (Horna-
day) postpaid
Destruction of Our Birds and Mam-
mals (Hornaday)
Notes on Mountain Sheep of North
America (Hornaday)
The Caribou (Grant)
The Origin and Relationship of the
Large Mammals of North Amer-
ica (Grant)
The Rocky Mountain Goat (Grant)
Tropical Wild Life (Beebe; Hartley;
Howes)
Zoologica Vol. 1. Nos. 1-20 inclusive,
set
Zoologica Vol. II. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, 5
" " No. 6, 7, 8 and 9. ..
Zoopathologica Vol. I. Nos. 1 to 5. .
Bulletin Nos. 1, 6, 8, 35, 43 and 46 . .
Bulletins Bi-monthly 20c. each;
Bulletin Nos. 24 to 60 inclusive, set, cloth
Official Guide Zoological Park (Hornaday)
$ .40
.75
.40
.75
1.00
1.25
1.00
Cloth $1.00
.60
" 1.00
1.25
1.50
1.25
1.65
.40
.40 " .60
1.00
1,00
3.00
3.85 " 6.00
.25 ea.
.75
.25 ea.
Out of Print
Yearly by mail 1.00
bound 10.00
.40
Souvenir Postal Cards: Series of 75 subjects in colors,
sold in sets of 25 cards, assorted subjects 25
(By mail, postage 2 cents per set extra.)
Souvenir Books: Series No. 3, 48 pages, 7x9 inches, 73
illustrations from four color plates 50
(By mail, postage 3 cents extra.)
Animals in Art Stamps: Album of 32 pages, providing
space for mounting 120 art stamps in four colors
made from selected photographs of animals taken
in the Zoological Park, complete with stamps 75
(By mail, postage 6 cents extra.)
Wild Animal Stamp Primer: 96 page cloth bound book
containing 49 animal stories, illustrated by 50 four-
color stamp reproductions 85
(By mail 7 cents extra)
Photogravures: Series of 12 subjects in sepia. Animals
and views in the Zoological Park. Sold in sets
of 2 subjects. Per set, postpaid 25
Panorama of the Zoological Park: Reproduced in colors
from an original drawing in perspective. Sold
flat or in folder form 10
(By mail, postage 2 cents extra.)
Enlargements: 11 x 14 inches. 12 subjects in black and
white, each 25
Duotone, Brown, each 35
Hand Colored (10 Subjects), each 75
Photo-Letter: (folding) 18 pictures, 4 colors 2 for .10
New York Aquarium Nature Series
Sea Shore Life (Mayer) cloth $1.20
Cultivation of Fishes in Ponds (Townsend) 25
Chameleons of the Sea (Townsend) 25
Northern Elephant Seal (Townsend) 25
Care of Home Aquaria (Osburn) cloth .50
Porpoise in Captivity (Townsend) 25
Natural History of the Whale Shark (Gudger) 25
The Gaff-Topsail Catfish (Gudger) 25
Inmates of the Aquarium (a book of views) 25
Aquarium Post Cards: Colored. In sets, each
(For all mail orders, 5c. extra)
.25
Publications for sale at 111 Broadway, Zoological Park and the New York Aquarium.
RETURN FORESTRY LIBRARY
TO* 260 Mulford Hall
642-2936
LOAN PERIOD 1
2 3
4
5 6
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
JUl 1 1S82
BO. mm jw i *
mtrnnssr^
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
FORM NO. DD 15, 9AA 1 782 BERKELEY, CA 94720
FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
