| Chapter : | Wilderness Reserves (1904) |
Wilderness Reserves (1904)
The practical common sense of the American people has been in no way made more evident during the last few years than by the creation and use of a series of large land reserves—situated for the most part on the Great Plains and among the mountains of the West—intended to keep the forests from destruction, and therefore to conserve the water supply. These reserves are created purely for economic purposes.72 The semiarid regions can only support a reasonable population under conditions of the strictest economy and wisdom in the use of the water supply, and, in addition to their other economic uses, the forests are indispensably necessary for the preservation of the water supply and for rendering possible its useful distribution throughout the proper seasons. In addition, however, to the economic use of the wilderness by preserving it for such purposes where it is unsuited for agricultural uses, it is wise here and there to keep selected portions of it—of course only those portions unfit for settlement in a state of nature—not merely for the sake of preserving the forests and the water, but for the sake of preserving all its beauties and wonders unspoiled by greedy and short-sighted vandalism. These beauties and wonders include animate as well as inanimate objects.