Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-02-07
THE NORTHWEST
The Nations Forests.

The first step in the effort to provide
for the conservation of 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 permanently, but the eX-
tent of forest territory which will be re-
required by 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 up
on them for its water supply, will he
necessary, in order to show what for
ests must be retained, and what tracts
of timber can be put upon the market
without injury to the important inter-
ests involved. Until such an eXamina-
ton has been made, none of the forest
lands now belonging to the United
States should be sold.
The second step should be to commit
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 national defense or
protection so important as this which
the army can perform, and it is plain
that under existing conditions the for
ests on the national domain will not be
indeed cannot be-adequately guard
ed 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 forests
on the public lands are pillaged by set
tiers, 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 that
sustains them, is, under the present
system, or want of system, only ques-
ton of time, and of a very short time.
The officers of the United States army
are educated by the nation for its serv-
ice, and they constitute body of men
not equaled by any other in our coun-
try in their equipment for guarding and
protecting the great forest regions be-
longing 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 un-
dertake this service they would have
the power and the 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 hereafterin the
care of the Indians, it will be available
for this service of guarding the national
forests. The work can be done we'll by
the army, and it would cost nothing, or
very little, while any other plan would
necessarily be both ineffective and cost
ly. This guardianship and defense of
the nations forests by the army of the
nstion should be continued and main
tanned until sufficient number of ade-
quately trained and equipped foresters
has been provided by the government
for the administration of complete
and permanent system and policy for
public domain.
This brings US to consider the third
step. This should be the appointment,
by the President, of q commission to
make thorough examination of the
condition of the forests belonging to
the nation, and of their relation to the
agricultural interests of the regions
through which the streams flow which
have their sources in these forests, and
to report, with the facts observed, a
comprensive plan for the preservation
and management of the public forests,
including a system for the training, by
the government, of sufficient number
of foresters for the national forest serv-
ice.
The commission should determine
what portions of the existing forests on
the public domain should be perma-
nently preserved, and in what manner
the remainder should be disposed Of
The national forests can be so managed
that they will be perpetuaIly reproduced
and will yield forever an abundant sup
ply of timber for the inhabitants of the
adjacent country, and revenue
which will more than sustain the cost
of the forest service. A National
School of Forestry should be established
at suitable place in one of the great
mountain forests on the public lands,
and its equipment should be just as
thorough and adequate for its purpose
as is that of the National Military
Academy at West Point.-From Gar
den and Forest, Jan. 30th, 1889.
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