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W. C. Bartlett (ND-ND) http://tinyurl.com/WCBartlett

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Water was Vital

From "A Year in the Forest Reservations," 1900. Read Online

Reader: Daniel Maloney

Natural disasters and human abuse have long plagued California's landscape. Their consequences remind us what is truly at stake - the beauty of the land and the livlihoods it provides.

When W.C. Bartlett accepted the position of Forest Supervisor in the Southern Sierra reservation in 1898, he quickly realized the practical implications of his responsibilities - protecting the livelihood of those who depend upon the land's natural resources.

"Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma, USA," April 1936, by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration Larger.

The season of 1898 was a very dry one in Southern California. Water was the vital question. Every cubic foot of it coming down from the mountains was precious. The four great rivers once tributary to Lake Tulare - Kern, Tule, Kaweah, and King's - had sent no water there for some years.

It was pitiful to see thousands of acres of wheat getting three inches above the ground and then going back - not even making pasture for dying cattle! Pitiful to see carloads of unclassed oranges thrown out as worthless because there had not been water enough to mature them! More pitiful to note the number of farmers who had paid cash rents for farms and had got nothing in return - not even so much grain as they had put into the ground!

The conservation of forests, the protection of undergrowths, the preservation of glacial meadows as sources of fountains were reduced to practical questions going to the life and prosperity of those toilers in the valley.

Bartlett's narrative, "A Year in the Forest Reservations," was published in Overland Monthly in March 1900.

–Contributed by Jessica Barganski.