Forest Service Circular No. 35 Forest Preservation and National Prosperity

FORESTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL POWER.

A. L. FELLOWS,
Consulting Engineer, United States Geological Survey.

* * * One of the greatest needs that this country has to-day is a cheaper form of power, so that industries as yet undeveloped may, in their turn, add to the national wealth. Electrical power may be generated in many ways, but in none more practically than by the use of water. We here avail ourselves of one of nature's resources without in any way exhausting her reserve supplies, as is done in the present wasteful use of coal. The development of electrical energy on a commercial basis upon a given stream and with a given fall will depend upon a variety of conditions, and in nearly every one of these conditions the forestation or lack of such upon the headwaters of the streams plays an important part. Those regions that approach most closely to ideal conditions are those which are densely forested, and can therefore act as conservators of the water supply with the least artificial aid.