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<br /> <br />fl028j ~! <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />Most of the experiments reported show how destruction of cover by fire, <br /> <br />grazing, or road building causes damage. A much smaller proportion reports <br /> <br />the benefits from reestablishment of cover. Experience has shown that often <br /> <br />grasses or herbs give more rapid stabilization than trees because of greater <br /> <br />initial ground cover and ease of establishment. <br /> <br />Water vield.--It is surprising that the early day enthusiastic claims <br /> <br />for the benefits of forest to water yield received little support from <br /> <br />foresters who studied the water cycle. In 1912, Raphael Zon quoting from a <br />1903 report by J. A. Toumey stated:1/ <br /> <br />"In many quarters there exists an impression that foresters claim <br /> <br />that wooded wattersheds have an effect on the total yearly discharge <br /> <br />of water in streams, and that with the destruction of the forest <br /> <br />the total discharge or the average annual discharge of water must <br /> <br />inevitably decrease. As a matter of fact, foresters have never <br /> <br />made any such claim. On the contrary, they were the first to point <br /> <br />out the possibility, under certain conditions--for instance in a <br /> <br />semiarid region--of a wooded watershed consuming a larger amount <br /> <br />of water than a bare watershed or one covered with low vegetation <br /> <br />and in this way diminishing the total amount of water available <br /> <br />for streamflow during the year." <br /> <br />1/ Zon, R. Forests and water in the light of scientific investigation, <br />In U. S. Nat. Waterways Comm. Final Re~ort, Senate Document 469, 62d. <br />Congress, 2d Session. Vol. 205-302. 1927. <br /> <br />- 5 - <br />