1938: Conservation

The year 1938 witnessed several events of interest and importance to conservation and its problems. On the constructive side the U. S. Department of Agriculture may take credit for the greatest amount of tangible progress toward the goals of conservation, but as usual the manifold activities of this Federal department are less spectacular than the more destructive activities of nature. Other governmental agencies, both Federal and state, have taken new steps to conserve resources, and it would require a lengthy article to review everything which has been accomplished in the twelve-month period. In this brief review, completeness and chronology will be sacrificed to the exposition of events and activities which seem to have especial and lasting significance.

New England Hurricane of September 1938.

The year's outstanding act of nature was the hurricane which devastated New England on Sept. 21. Starting as a perfectly normal tropical hurricane in the Lesser Antilles, it was watched carefully and reported fully as long as it remained in the Caribbean region. Florida prepared to weather it but, as commonly happens in September disturbances which originate in the tropics, the hurricane swung northward along the continental border instead of adopting the alternate route across Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. What followed was unpredictable. Ordinarily a storm of this intensity moves northward to Cape Hatteras at a rate of 15 to 20 miles an hour, then curves northeastward into the North Atlantic, where its force is expended in the open ocean. But unusual meteorological conditions existed as the September disturbance moved northward; an area of high barometric pressure hovered over the Atlantic, and another covered the Northeast Central States. Between the two, in New England, was a low pressure lane into which the tropical storm was drawn at a speed which reached the incredible rate of 60 miles an hour, with vortex velocities which far exceeded 150 miles per hour.

Destruction by Wind.

The destruction which ensued need not be re-described. It came from two sources — the wind and the torrential rain. Quite apart from the havoc to life and property, the damage to forests, soils, agricultural lands, and beaches reached staggering proportions. Preliminary but altogether too hasty surveys of tree damage supplied the Press with sensational statements indicating that 50 per cent of the forest trees had been uprooted or broken, but later and more discriminating studies have materially reduced the early estimate. Locally, forested areas in Massachusetts and New Hampshire suffered virtually a 100 per cent tree loss, but more extensive areas were not hit to the same degree. In the 15,000 square miles which felt the brunt of the storm, there was approximately a 20 per cent tree loss — an impressive total for a section of the country in which reforestation has become an important part of regional economy.

Rainfall.

The deluge which accompanied the wind was highly destructive to soils, and the damage directly attributable to rainwash, as contrasted to floods, was especially heavy for a single storm. The locale of rainwash erosion was interesting and in certain respects unique. Several days of rain preceded the hurricane, and the soils were saturated, the stream channels already full. Hence the heavy precipitation was immediately converted into run-off. Because of the high wind the rain traveled almost horizontally, and the actual precipitation on low and relatively flat lands was moderate. On the other hand, windward slopes in the hill country were drenched, and soil erosion by sheetwash and gullying increased practically in geometrical ratio to the height of the slopes. On thinly vegetated hillsides the sheetwash was intensive, and even the forested slopes suffered somewhat from this type of erosion. On the latter, however, greatest destruction was accomplished by gullying, for the distribution of trees concentrated the water into channels which, regardless of incipient size, gouged the hillsides to an extraordinary extent. The erosive effects have brought out the significant facts that even heavy forest growth does not immunize rugged country from gullying, and that no natural or artificial protection can be devised to forestall the destructive activity of rainfall which descends with the rapidity and in the amount that characterized the Sept. 21 storm.

Floods.

With the exceptional volume of rainfall that accompanied the hurricane, the streams, already full, quickly reached flood stage, inundating valley bottoms and flats with incredible rapidity. The ensuing flood offered many enlightening contrasts with New England's last flood in March 1936. In the latter, long-continued melting of a heavy snow cover over the entire watershed caused high water in the tributaries but concentrated abnormal volumes in the mainstreams — notably the Connecticut and the Merrimac. In September 1938 the flood was caused by rainfall, with the peak of precipitation progressing from south to north — a direction opposed to that of mainstream flow. Inland from the coast the Connecticut drainage basin received the greatest amount of precipitation, with the peak hovering over each successive upstream tributary, everyone of which has, at least in part, an east-west orientation.

In consequence of the geography of the storm and of the Connecticut watershed, the waters in the south began to fall before those in the north attained their greatest heights. For this reason the flood crest in the Connecticut was not as high as in March 1936; but the situation was reversed in the tributaries, many of which attained flood crests exceeding their high-water levels of 1936 by amounts ranging from several inches to four and five feet. The damage to property, both private and public, need not be detailed, but it was staggering as the stories of such communities as Ware and Orange amply reveal. If the flood of September 1938 taught anything regarding flood control in New England, it demonstrated the need for the reservoir system planned by the Army Engineering Corps, whereby control reservoirs in the tributaries will supplement diking and other protective structures along the main streams. Those protective structures erected since 1936 adequately proved their value, as the city of West Springfield, Mass., observed to its satisfaction; but regional control projects must complement local protection if New England is to be spared from flood devastation in the future.

Loss of Life and Property: Beach Erosion.

The hurricane was remarkable for the comparatively small loss of life in inland localities, despite the fact that New Englanders, in their ignorance of such a storm's propensity for destruction, took many foolhardy risks. But there was heavy loss of life and property along the shore-lines of eastern Connecticut. Rhode Island, and parts of eastern Long Island- districts which lay directly in the track of the storm center. From the conservational point of view, the beach erosion which accompanied the impact of the wind-whipped sea was especially interesting. As in the hurricane which obliterated Galveston. Texas, many years ago, the wind not only drove the waves onshore, but wind pressure materially raised the level of the water; hence wave erosion became operative at heights which were thought to be well beyond the reach of the sea. Beaches were demolished, off-shore bars and baymouth bars were breached, and artificial structures were treated with no greater respect. Although surveys of the destruction have not been completed, it is known that many recreational areas have been damaged beyond repair; that fresh-water bays and lagoons, used as way stations by migratory birds, have been ruined by salt water; that many acres of shore property have vanished; that even the most skillfully devised artificial structures could not have prevented the bulk of the destruction.

Results of Hurricane.

To those concerned with conservation the hurricane of September 1938 serves much the same purpose as abnormal psychology serves to psychologists who seek to understand the workings of the normal mind. Abnormal in its speed and in its course into continental North America, the storm has unquestionably set some of New England's conservational accomplishments back a generation, and at least part of the damage is irreparable. Yet there have been certain beneficial consequences which, in the course of time, will mean a net gain to the cause of conservation. Federal, state, municipal, and private agencies have focused their attention upon reforestation, and seasoned foresters see in the situation a welcome opportunity to reduce the acreage of pines and other evergreens, which suffered heavy wind damage. It is believed that a reduction in the acreage of evergreen forests will definitely benefit wildlife, both bird and animal, which finds meager subsistence in forests of this type. Following the storm the nation was given an object lesson in fire control, for the dried boughs, pine needles, and pitch-saturated wood, blown down by the wind, constituted one of the gravest fire hazards that any section of the continent has ever faced. Yet not a single fire was reported. The emergency created by the flood was also instrumental in breaking the impasse between the President and the New England governors who made an issue of states' rights in the Federal government's proposed program of flood control. A fund of $9,000,000 was set aside to begin the construction of four reservoirs on tributaries of the Connecticut River. Although their number constitutes but a fraction needed for a minimum program of flood control, at least a start has been made in an important conservational direction.

Floods, Forest Fires and Landslides in the West.

Flood and fire visited other sections of the continent during the year 1938, taking their inevitable toll of life, property, and natural resources. Early in March, southern California was drenched with prolonged rains which its streams were wholly unable to handle. The Los Angeles district suffered serious losses as the swollen streams from the mountains emptied their waters on the relatively flat piedmont country between mountains and coast. Outside the urban districts, where loss of life and property was greatest, a large acreage of farmland was ruined by erosion or by burial beneath the coarse gravel washed down from the highlands to the north and east. Capriciously, drought so affected this same district before the year's close, that fire ravaged the forests covering the surrounding mountains in November. Before the fire was brought under control, several communities, many estates, and much timber were destroyed. During the summer, too, the Pacific Coast States were the victims of heavy fire losses, which were most serious in Oregon. Local floods in Montana and two or three landslides of unusual dimensions featured in the year's natural phenomena, but they are of little moment as conservational problems.

Constructive Features.

Olympic National Park.

Not all 1938 news was bad, and a review of conservation during the year may well conclude with the constructive features which were in part the result of natural causes and in part the outcome of human planning. Of especial significance was the Act of Congress, passed during the closing days of the session, creating the Olympic National Park in the mountains which lie between the Pacific Coast and the southern extension of Puget Sound in the state of Washington. Embracing an area of nearly 300,000 acres in extent, the Park contains the most rugged country in the Coast Ranges of the United States. Mt. Olympus, less than fifty miles from the sea, attains an elevation just under 8,000 feet. Within the country included in the Park are the best remaining stands of virgin Douglas fir, western white fir and hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red and Alaska cedar. It has been less than five years since roads were extended along the western flank of the range, and even now the heart of the mountain country is inaccessible to motorists. It is proposed to leave the rugged mountain region in its primeval state, and it is to be hoped that the indiscriminate destruction of timber which followed the partial opening of the country five years ago will be brought to an end.

Legislation: Reorganization Bill.

Many conservationists see in the defeat of the President's Reorganization Bill, which passed the Senate but was lost in the House of Representatives, a victory for conservation, notwithstanding the fact that the Bill called for the transformation of the Department of the Interior into a Department of Conservation. The plan involved consolidation of all conservational agencies under a single Cabinet member, but it was claimed, with some justice, that the Department of Agriculture has for many years been the only governmental department constructively engaged in an effective and efficient program of conservation, and it was argued that the Department of Agriculture's work would be completely disrupted by the proposed transfer. As Congress assembles for a 1939 session, there is talk of reviving the Reorganization Bill, and the several issues to which the original Bill gave rise may have to be faced again in 1939.

Soil Conservation Program.

Within the coastal extremities of the United States, man and nature have both worked more harmoniously toward the achievement of conservational ends. The Soil Conservation Service has been steadily extending its program over more and more of the nation's farmlands; and by shrewd use of agricultural, geological, and engineering skill, this governmental agency has been rapidly developing techniques for soil and gully control that are peculiarly adapted to local topography and climate. With the aid of airplane photographs, the experts in the Service have developed an elaborate system of land classification which is already benefiting the agricultural industry in many parts of the country. Contour plowing and strip farming have been put into practice in many districts, and it is already possible to compare these methods of tilling the soil with the older, soil-wasting methods so long in vogue. Many illuminating contrasts are supplied by adjacent farms in the Piedmont, the Mid-West, and the Northwest; and there can be no doubt but what farming methods will soon conform to the requirements of soil conservation in all of the tillable lands which the nation possesses.

Dust Storms; Shelter Belts.

Ample rains have continued to settle the dust of the Great Plains, and the years of dust storms seem little more than a bad dream to the inhabitants of that formerly drought-ridden region. Even the dubious 'Shelter belt' has been favored by the climate of the past two years — a project which, it is hoped, may be transformed into a significant success. (See also BOTANY.)

Forest Conservation.

On the whole, forest conservation has been progressing steadily, but there is still much which governmental and private agencies can do. Of the 615,000,000 acres of forest land in the United States, less than 30 per cent is publicly owned, and nearly 20 per cent contains no commercial timber. It is estimated that less than one-third of the original crop of commercial timber which the country possessed still remains; and cutting is still going on about twice as rapidly as the nation's forests are being restored. Despite the Forest Service's effective work in fire control, not to mention the aid given by 964 CCC Camps under direct supervision of the Forest Service, forest fires still burn approximately 40,000,000 acres of woodland every year. Over 98 per cent of the destruction takes place in privately owned forests, and this significant fact points to the need for extension of forest supervision beyond the limits of the national and state forests.

Progress in Conservation.

The year has seen significant progress in the development of Shenandoah National Park and the Badlands National Monument. Flood control projects have gone steadily forward in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys; and Federal engineering activity in California, Arizona, Washington, and the Tennessee Valley is destined to supply the United States with new farmlands, an assured water supply for many communities, enhanced power resources, and prolonged controversy regarding Government versus private distribution of hydroelectric power. Many projects designed to protect migratory birds and other forms of wildlife might also be recorded; in fact, conservation has advanced measurably on every front except that involving mineral resources. And, as opponents of the Reorganization Bill have pointed out, the minerals of the nation are under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, to whom it was proposed to entrust all conservational activities.