Our Desert Has Many Faces

Transiencies of mortality-such is the first subtle feel of the desert."

Desert skies are always impressive, even to the most inexperienced newcomer. Calvin is lyrical when he writes of them: "The emotional and aesthetic effect of the sky is no less real than the practical one. Here one sees it all-180 glorious colorful degrees of it. In any direction save downward, it fills the larger part of the view and the eyes cannot lift without being aware of its magnificence. All day long it offers for the efforts of Nature, celestial colorist, a stupendous dome, which for weeks on end she hangs with curtains of the sincerest, heart-comforting azure, or tiring, frescoes with idle, pearl-white angels. But when summer rains begin, she sits like a squaw weaving a blanket, splashes the evening firmament with bizarre patterns of crimson and ochre edged with orange flame. And then at twilight she paints out the whole of it and begins again with a wash of tender and uncertain greys.

One of our favorite desert commentators is Joseph Wood Krutch, author of two of the definitive desert books: The Voice of the Desert and The Desert Year. In these he speaks with authority and scholarship. We quote at random: "Certainly I do not know what it is that this land, together with the plants and animals who find its strangeness normal, has been trying to say to me for twelve years, what kinship with me it is that all so insistently claim. I know that many besides myself have felt its charm, but I know also that not all who visit it do, that there are, indeed, some in whom it inspires at first sight not love but fear, or even hatred. Its appeal is not the appeal of things universally attractive, like smiling fields, bubbling springs, and murmuring brooks. To some it seems merely stricken, and even those of us who love it recognize that its beauty is no easy one. It suggests patience and struggle and endurance. It is courageous and happy, not easy and luxurious. In the brightest colors of its sandstone canyons, even in the brightest color of its brief spring flowers, there is something austere."

"From a distance, this stretch of desert floor looks green enough and almost like the thickets one finds in many cooler, damper lands. But there is much that distinguishes it Where water is scarce, roots spread far and shallowly Because of spacing which nature has attended to, it has a curious air of being a park rather than a wilderness I wonder if that is perhaps, one of the things which makes this country seem to enjoy a kind of peace one does not find elsewhere... Out here there is, even in nature, no congestion."

And "... I cannot help wondering if one of the worst features of most of the world in which we live is not the simple fact that, to an ever increasing degree, mere living space is the thing which gives out first."

"Not to have known as most men have not-either the mountain or the desert is not to have known one's self. Not to have known one's self is to have known no one...

"Call it if you must, only another aspect of the pathetic fallacy, but the desert seems to approve and to encourage an attitude with which I have found scant sympathy among men, and of which I have never before been quite so sure that even nature approved. In contemporary society, the all but universal ambition of the individual and the all but invariable aim of every proposed social or political movement is to get, for oneself or for others, more things In the desert, on the other hand, the very fauna and flora proclaim that one can have a great deal of certain things while having very little of others; that one kind of scarcity is compatible with, perhaps even a necessary condition of, another kind of plenty plenty of light and plenty of space.

"By analogy, that reminds one that 'economy of abundance' is a meaningless phrase unless one asks, 'Abundance of what?' . much can be lacking in the midst of plenty; on the other hand where some things are scarce, others, no less desirable, may abound."

And so it goes: Our desert has many faces. Each person views it from his own eyes, mind and soul. The desert is unfathomable, inscrutable. It is strange, attractive, repelling. But it is never boring.

The Northlands Beckon

When that big piece of real estate called Arizona was put together, the Maker used both imagination and care in His creation. Desert, foothills, canyons, mountains, creeks, dry washes, rivers, gulleys, plateaus and mesas were mixed together in a pleasing and quite distinctive pattern. By geographical position Arizona is in many ways a protected state scarcely ever receiving the buffets of bitterly inclement weather. Our acquaintance with blizzards, tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, and other manifestations of the natural elements in their angrier and uglier moods, is made mainly through headlines in the morning newspaper. True, winter storms sweep into our higher mountain areas occasionally but seldom so severe as to cause serious damage to either property or person. True, desert summer temperatures are high, but low humidity is a compensating factor, as well as air conditioning, that makes desert summer living not only bearable but comfortable. Witness the fact that by far the greatest number of our people

live, and quite well, thank you, in the hottest parts of our state. One of the main reasons for Arizona's tremendous population growth in the past decade has been because of our blessed climate, conducive to year-round outdoor living. Our relations with the weather are happy, indeed! And our relations with Nature are very happy, indeed, too! Our Arizona residents and visitors alike, with more leisure time, find golden opportunities for "outdoor living" and recreation when the northlands beckon, and they seem to be beckoning all the time. "Northlands," perhaps, is not the proper word. It would be better to say "highlands" of our state because, as you'll see from just a cursory glance at a road map, our mountain ranges are varied and many. They extend from the mighty Kaibab in the north to the Chiricahuas in the southeastern corner of our state, with truly many majestic mountain wonderlands in between. The uninformed who casually refer to Arizona as "the desert state" should take another and more careful look. The yardstick can come up with some rather astonishing and surprising figures which can explode preconceived ideas.

This favored piece of real estate called Arizona has a total land area of 72,838,500 acres of which nearly twenty million acres bear some kind of forest growth. Nearly five million of Arizona's acres carry big timber, such as ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, while some fifteen million acres carry woodland species, such as piñon, juniper and oak. One-fourth of our state, then, is forest land under various ownership National Forests, Indian reservations, State and private lands. Most of this forest land is made up of National Forests, owned by you and the neighbors down the street, and the folks who come visiting. One-sixth of Arizona is National Forest land-11,402,278 acres divided into eight National Forests under the supervision of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southwestern Region, ranging from near Utah to the Mexican border, from the Santa Maria Mountains near Prescott to the New Mexico border, with two of them, the Apache and the Coronado, extending into New Mexico. Our eight National Forests are, ranging from north to south, the Kaibab, with headquarters at Williams; Prescott