Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-04-20
The Nations Forests.

wac Tor the conservation or the
forests on the national domain should
be the withdrawal from sale Of all
forest lands belonging to the nation.
1t will not be necessary to preserve
and maintain all these forests per-
manently, but the extent of forest
territory which will be required by
a practical plan of forest preservation
and management for our western
mountain regions cannot be at once
precisely determined. A thorough
examination of these regions, and Of
the agricultural country depending
upon them for its water supply, will
be necessary, in order to show what
forests must be retained, and what
tracts of timber can be put upon the
market without injury to the i'm
portant interests involved. Until
such an examination has been made,
none of the forest lands now belong
ing to the United States should be
sold.
The second step should be to COM
NIT to the United States army the
care and guardianship of the forests
belonging to the nation. There is in
time of peace no other work of ma
tiOnal defense or protection so i'm
pOrtant as this which the army can
perform, and it is plain that under
existing conditions the forests on the
national domain will not be-indeed,
cannot be-adequately guarded and
protected by any other means. The
measures which have been tried,
including those now in operation, or
nominally in operation, have proved
almost entirely Ineffective. The
forestston the public lands are pillag-
ed by settlers and by the employees
of railroad and mining companies
without scruple or limit. Other
instruments will have to be employed
if the forests are to be preserved.
Their complete and final destruction,
with that of the soil which sustains
them, is, under the present system or
want of system, only a question of
time and of very short time.
The officers Of the United States
army are educated by the nation for
its service, and they constitute body
of men not equaied by any other in
our country in their equipment for
guarding and protecting the great
forest regions belonging to the nation.
They possess every kind of fitness for
this work in greater degree than any
other class of men, and if authorized
by law to undertake this service they
would have the power and means
necessary for its performance, while
everybody else is at present inevitably
powerless and incapable. As there
is likely to be very little work for the
army hereafter in the care of the
Indians, it will be available for this
service of guarding the national
forests. The work can be done
well by the army, and it would cost
nothing, or very little, while any
other plan would necessarily be both
ineffective and costly. This guardian
ship and defense of the nations
forests by the army Of the nation
should be continued and main
tanned until a sufficient mum
Der of adequately trained anG
equipped foresters has been provided
by the national government for the
administration of a complete and
permanent system and policy for the
management of the forests on the
, public domain.
This brings us TO consider thu
third step. This should be the ap
pointment, by the president, Of ,
+ commission TO make thorough eX
animation of the condition of tn,
. forests belonging to the nation, anC
Of their relation to the agriculture
7 interests of the regions through
which the streams flow which have
their sources in these forests, and t
report, with the facts observed, ;
| comprehensive plan for the preserva
ton and management of the publ
) forests, including a system for tn,
: training, by the government, of {
sufficient number of fOresters for TIT
national forest service.
The commission shoulddreet min,
what portions of the existing forest
on the public domain should be per
manently preserved, and in wha
manner the remainder should b.
: disposed of. The national forest
2 can be so managed that they will b
4 perpetually reproduced, and viii
xyialJ fNroH,nr on abundant Cunnl1, N