Mississippi is not the only river on which flood control measures are used, or in which the Engineer Corps is interested. Flood-control dams are to be found in many parts of the country-in the East, middle West, far West and South west. Wherever there are rivers to overflow their banks, there is the need for controlling their rampages. The Ohio basin is another region to receive great attention, for in it is to be found one of the highly developed industrial areas of the nation, as well as some of the richest mining country and the most fertile fields. Its scope embraces parts of fourteen different states, and property damage from floods ranks higher in the Ohio basin than in any of the other major river basins in the country.
Average annual rainfall in the Ohio valley, according to Weather Bureau records, is forty-four inches higher than any other major subdivision of the Mississippi system except the lower alluvial valley. Flood stage is reached or passed at some point along the Ohio virtually every year, while damaging floods have occurred thirty times in the last sixty-four years. In the 1937 flood alone, property damage in the Ohio valley totaled 8400,000,000. On the other hand, the St. Lawrence is said to be the best regulated river in the world. Its good behaviour is due to the Great Lakes, which act as a vast storage system at its source. With those great natural reservoirs to regulate the amount of water it receives, the St. Lawrence cannot help being a well-behaved river. Holding back the water by means of dams after the rain has fallen is only the immediate and direct approach to flood control.
The U. S. Forest Service takes a deeper, more basic approach to the problem. Water that falls from the clouds, or comes from the melting snow mantle, and rushes directly into the streams and rivers, does little good to the land. Indeed, in its hurry to get to the sea, that water may sweep along with it grains of sand, rich loam, pebbles and even great boulders. The aim of the Forest Service in its flood-control work is to arrange so that at least a portion of that water is retained long enough so the crops, the forests and the vegetation in general can make use of it. The Service does not claim that forests can prevent floods, but it does believe that forests are one of the beneficial influences that can be brought into play in the larger program of flood control.
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