SD -15^ 'v^^ I look PKDSENTICn BY PRESERVATION OF FORESTS AS A MEASURE OF PUBLIC SAFETY Address Delivered Before the Seventeenth National Irriojation Consjress HELD AT SPOKANE, WASHINGTON. U. S. A. AUGUST. 190y. y BY THE BRAZILIAN DELEGATE L. BAETA-NEVES, Mining and Civil Entrjneer. ^' THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS AS A MEASURE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. Address before the 1 7th National Irrigation Congress, Spokane, Wash., August, 1909. by L. BAETA-NEVES Mining and Civil Engineer; Graduate of the Ouro Prete Mining School, Brazil; Chief of the Technical Deparlmenl of the Directory of Railway and Public Works in Minas Geraes, Brazil; Member of the Historic and Geographic Institute of the same state; Member of the National Geographic Society of Washington; Knight of Columbus; Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Cal.; Representative of the Brazilian Government before the Scientific Congresses 16th Irrigation and 3rd Dry Farming in America, and Vice-President and Corresponding Secretary of this Congress; Special Delegate of Brazil before the 17th National Irrigation Congress at Spokane, Wash., where, by selection, he addressed the meeting on behalf of the Foreign Represensatives. r I'eally feA li'Iful i\nd exceeding'ly hoiioi-ed in coining- ag'ain hcforc this Congress and my pleasure is great in telling you once more how much I appreciate the warm welcome of the North American people, and how much I have enjoyed the pleasant stay in this most hospitable city. I come now with the same feelings and sentiment that I li'ied to translate to >()u on the opening session of this most impoi'tant meeting full of very valua))le lessons from any view jjoiiit ; on that day T had the great honor of speaking to you on behalf of the foreign delegates of this convention bringing greetings from the Brazilian Government and fr(un the dif- ferent nations here represented. But now. allow me to say, Ameri'cans. and distinguished representatives of foreign conti- nents and islands, thar translating the g-ood feelings and altru- istic sentiment of the ])eople of the countries of Columbus, T a)n going- to speak wWh my whole soul, my whole heart, on behalf of the sacred I'ights of humanity, addressing you on a subject very dear to me in which I have been deeply interested since my childhood ; a subject on wliich T have learned a great deal from two men of universal reputation, who. for the glory of tlie Avcstern hemisphere, were born under tlie purest sky of America — I mean Roosevelt and GiflPord Pinchot. I stand for the forest, for the preservation of forests, as a measure of public safety. My paper is in part an extract of a report that I sent to Brazil to be read this week at the request of the 4th International American jMedical Cono-ress, held now at Rio l)e Janeiro "on the most efficacious means of preventing- and k^ssening- the effects of periodical droughts." In that paper I wrote, about the lessons of the Irrigation Cong-ress, which lessons we are already profiting by, having improved the Irri- gation projeets of which I wrote the address printed in the i)ro- ceedings of the 16th National Irrig'ation Congress, last year. I am pleased to say tliat in this report I emphasized also the great work which has been done by the dry farming Congress, \\iH_)se lessons ai'e the best to teach the pe()])U\ of the arid district of the woi'hl, how to nse profitable by the water, almost always so expensive and difficult to be obtained in such dis- tricts. You will find on the last proceedings of the dry farm- ing Congress at Cheyenne, a ])aper of mine on the combination of irrigation and dry farming lu'ocesses, which comliination I think will give the liest results in rendering more fit to sustain life a region subject to drought. To the medical Congress. I suggested that a branch of the dry farming of America should be established in Brazil according to the wishes of its indefat- igable secretary my good friend !!Mr. John T. Burns.. Being re(|uest back to the subject of my paper. In my report to the Interiiaitional jNIedieal Congress I wrote also about the Cactus of Luther Burbank. of California, and incidentally I called the attention of the Brazilian Enoineers to the recent l)rocess in which the English government is noAV interested, facilitating the atmospheric precipitations for small water supply near the coast, causing the deposit of dew as has been practiced in Gibraltar T have read something about this pro- cess on an interesting jvaper of ^Nlr. (leorge Hurbard read this year on March 3rd. before the Royal Society of Arts, London : I wrote too about the forests considering them like T am about to do. The importance of forests as protectors of mankind is an iucontroversible fact, and there is no spirit, less observing as it may be, that has not noticed, even sli^iitly. some intluence of the trees in benefitting life. At different times I have treated tliis i^iportant subject that impressed nic so nuu-h. in the national and foreign press and in public acidresses here in America, several times dis- cussing the intluence of the trees upon our life. Once speaking about the combined work of medicine and engineering in the noble and liumanitarian campaign to improve the means of life on the surface of this planet, especially to preserve and increase the vigor of the people, I said in part : "Life progressively is becoming very difficult to be pre- served in good conditions because of the incessant exhaustion of elements that are favorable to it on the 'surface of the earth, where a 'continuous transformation is observed all over. "The forests, the best protectors of our life, are going- fast, and from the modification that their disappearance is bringing to the climate and to the natural conditions all over the earth, will come serious troubles to the solution of the sanitary prob- lems in the future. ' ' It is necessary to use intelligently so important elements of life, without so barbarous destructions, because so far as the present scientific knowledge is concerned, there is no doubt, at all, that from the lack of the forest will come the greatest modifications in the meteorological conditions of the earth. and you know, the meteorological conditions — the weather — 3 has the most positive influeni-e on onr life. This influence does not appear only on the health conditions, but, too, in the most complicate social phenomena. "The old proverb — 'Man is the son of his environments' - — is a translation of a truth scientifically demonstrated, prov- ing- the weather's influence. It is true that it means the law of adaptation, but the environments of man depend entirely upon the meteorological conditions. According to this law we could, perhaps, live even under bad conditions of weather, but such condition would bring an unhealthy condition of life, too. • "Professor Dexter, of the University of Illinois, studying the mental and physiological influence of the meteorological conditions, in one of his books, gives a comprehensive s'tudy of the question, proving the weather's influence o,n the organic and intellectual life, the emotions, the literary sentiments, the individual conduct. He proves priiuMi)alIy that the change of meteorological conditions affects the health more than any- thing else. "Under bad meteorological conditions we never would have the necessary reserve of energy for the complete activity of life. "And good meteorologi-cal conditions can be guaranteed only by the preservation of forests, that, unhappily for our future, does not receive from the people the deserved attention." Since the colonial time many Brazilians have been con- sidering the forests from a sanitary viewpoint. The patriarch of oiir independence Jose Bonifacio in 1815 wrote these phrases : "What other productions of Mother Nature ought to de- serve greater attention from the philosophers and stateraen than the forests and trees? Trees, wood and timber: Only these words, well meditated ui)on and luiderstood. are enough to awaken our whole sensibility." Besides other reasons there is a powerful one that makes necessary the protection of forest — its great influence upon health. Health is all, and upon it reposes the happiness of l)eople and the greatness and prosperity of the countries. On account of a rapid progress we must not sacrifice the forests as it has been done in many new -countries. Any progress detrimental to the vital forces of nature, is negative, ephemeral; if one generation profits by it, the follow- ing one fatally Avill suffer its consequences. This axiom, in my humble opinion, translates better the decline and disappearance of some nations that figured in antiquity than any explanation given by the modern philos- ophy for the fact; and forethought advises to profit by the practical lesson contained within it, preserving our natural resources in order not to sacrifice to a temporary greatness the best means of preserving life, which means are represented by the forest. The trees are great regulators of many conditions of life, principally facilitating the atmospheric precipitatiou and their profit. The aqueous vapors penetrating the cool atmos- phere of the forest at the contact of the foliage of the trees, condense resolving into rain or dew; and the water that falls on the soil, protected against evaporation by the shade, having its surface-fiow impeded and its absorption facilitated by the roots, penetrates in greatest quantity into the land, guarantee- ing the permanency and abundance of the source that it forms. The rainfall without the protecting vegetation rapidly fiows on the surface soil forming the run-off, which takes from the earth the fertilizing hunnis, excavating the mountain and producing the destructive overflow in the valley. In the countries where ice and snow do not appear th§ regimen of the water courses in a great measure depends upon the vegetation that covers the head of the streams; and such an influence is as great as the porosity of the soil is small in the generative basin of the sources. If there is yet controv- ersy which is progressively disappearing with more serious study about some forests' influences, there is not, all over the earth, any one who can scientifically contest this truth that his- tory and geography, the facets of the past and the observation of the present so clearly confirm. The Nile, which comes from the heart of Africa, born among the virgin forests where fire and men never have penetrated, keeps today, in an average, the same* flow that it had when it fertilized Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs. The effects of forests do not appear in confined zones. Their influence is not bounded by a certain region, and the calamity coming from their devastation passes over the indi- vidual property affecting the public welfare. This is an incon- testible truth that science demonstrates and facts corroborate. Therefore there is no reason why protection of forest must be concerned to a certain extension, not affecting the private lands. The individual right ought not to affect the high interests of the Union which ought to save its own future, guaranteeing by the preservation of the natural resources of the country, the general well-being of the present and future generations. This rational theory, applied to the case of forests, each day gains assent in this country being already accepted in the higher tribunals in favor of the legislation proj[;ecting such resources, which legislation is earnestly advocated by President Roosevelt, accordingly it was adopted on March 10. 1903 by the supreme court of Maine, and on April 6th of the same year, the supreme court of the United States sustained it, confirming the opinion of the court of errors and appeals of New Jersey. To the glory of us Brazilians this principle is the confirma- tion of a doctrine of which I spoke last here at Albuquerque, promulgated in 1802 ])y the eminent Brazilian. Dr. Francisco Saturnino Rodrigues de Brito. who wrote: "The argument against such laws has no reason for being. l)ecause the owner of the land is only a steward of the soil that was entrusted to him by the i)ast generations; he is the depository of lands as he is a depository of capital, and thus, as it has a social origin, territorial property must have a social application, in attending to collective interest; and these re- quire the individual eft'ort of each man to preserve and improve on the planet the necessary means of living, among which are the preservation and replantation of forests, that may keep the necessary moisture for regular rainfall and the normal dis- tribution of water, detaining it among their roots and not permitting the destructive overflows that take from the soil the fertilizing humus. The argument lias no reason for being, also, because the interest of the family itself requires providence against the prodigal member who steals from his own children the inheritance from the pas-t, giving to this improvident an egotistical father only the income of it; and as it happens with the inheritance, legislative enactment mnst regnlate the qnes- tion of lands for the interest of the social commnnity that has a great attainment from the Past, and comprehending the Pres- ent and the Fntnre." The argnments of President Roosevelt are very similar to those of the ilhistrions Brazilian engineer and the same thing can be said in regard to the reasons presented by the Supreme Conrt of the United States as quoted by the American President : "The State, as quasi-sovereign and representative of the interest of the public, has a standing in court to prote'Ct the atmosphere, the water and forests either in its territory, irre- s[)ective of the ascent or descent of the private owner of the hmd most immediately concerned." I am deeply convinced that the conscientious scruples of a great many of our eminent legislators and loyal men in ac- cepting this doctrine li(^ only in the fact that they are always busy with something else, never dedicating themselves to any serious study of the forests in their relations to life and the progress of countries; they have never considered that, on a'ccount of such relation, the sacred rights of humanity, the life of our children and future generations require a direct ana im- mediate protection for the trees, which protection is undoubt- edly a measure of public safety. And really such a protection iS as important as any other measure that may prevent the invasion and spread of some epidemic disease. To tlu^ 4th Latin-American Congress I moved that all possible efit'ort should be made to have Brazil and all nations represented at the congress accepted the proposition that is found in my address of forests last year, which proposition I write now as follows : ''^Preservation oj Joresis in many ways nccessarv^ must he considered as a measure of public safety and it is of urgent necessity to maintain the permanency and abundance not only of the stream ftozv, bat, of the underground waters.''' (1) This proposition, ladies and g'entlemen, will do some good for our forests wheu thorong'lily accepted in the countries where the question of right of property has been an obstacle to the protection laws for saving the trees on the private lands. I make an appeal to you, gentlemen, of all different nations here represented to bring with you the ideas contained in this paper whose value lies only on the strong conviction with which I wrote it. Let us be united all over the world in this great and noblest campaign for the life of mankind, for the life of our own children, the water, the pure air, the' shade of relief of fatigue, the timber, in resume, the life itself. Let us profit by the great lessons of Gifford Pinchot, accepting the wise advise of greatest men of the past and present generations. And may this alarm-cry arouse the energies of the present for the solu- tion of the great problem of the future. MEANS ADVISED TO PREVENT THE CUTTING OF FOR- ESTS IN BRAZIL. After the approbation of the proposition 'contained in the first part of my address considering the protection of the for- ests as a measure of public safety, we must have some restriction from the states in regard to the use of the generative land of courses, establishing the protective areas, even approximately, according to the good sense, putting them under a provisory police of the tax collectors and the patriotism of the people, until we can get the resources for a most effective police. We must get annually from the Federal Congress some appropriation, however small, to start the National Forestry Reservation at the head of the great and navigable rivers, progressively enlarging such reservation until it has a suffi-ci- ent extension. I think that in general the forests would be preserved if the people knew how to use them systematically if efficient means of preservation of timber could be obtained, in order to use the softer and light wood as good material, avoiding, as said by the illustrious engineer, Joaquim Julio Proenca, the devastation of the virgin forests for hardwoods to be employed in construction of certain importance, principally railroads; if we could plant good species, growing fast to be used as fuel and good timber, for instance, the eucalyptus as is being done in California, and was advised in Minas Geraes by the dis- tinguished botanist (Migineer. Alvaro da Silveira. and if we could stop or diminish the clearing of forests or old process of burning the forests for fuel and agricultural ])urposes by divulging the scientific processes of cidtivation. and profit by using green wood as a fuel in great factories, using dry stoves heated by the furnace gases, as established by the deceased President Joao Pinheiro in his factory at Caete. Minas Geraes, Brazil. From these considerations we have many suggestions how to protect the trees, but. certainly, the suggested measures and those profitable ones found in many forestry codes in our states, must not be taken only by the Union, whose service, as I said before, must be as simple and economic as possible in order to be stable. The Federal Government in accordance with the states must help the development of the instruction on forestry, estab- lishing special forestry gardens, however small, connected with botanical liranch iu the engineering courses, for better knowl- edge and trial of species of rapid growth, suitable for con- struction and railroad ties: must promote replantion of resist- ant trees such as enealyptus in the arid region, principally where the sources permanently or temporarily appear; must promote the employing of light and white soft timber by giving premiums to the inventor (^f the best and most economic pro- cess for its preservation, and finally, must make every possible propaganda by publication of short and practical papers and so on among farmers on the influence and value of the forests. (1) In my book on the water supply and sewers of Caxambu, Minas Geraes, Brazil, I explained the influence of the forests upon the un- derground water in a chapter under the title "Preservation of the sources." 'V*^ :r>>i^v LIBRARY OF CONGRESS llllllll'ilttll 002 818 749 A ^#^ ■^tiif'*^ #»: