The times., 1897-04-06
Our Forest Policy.

Owing to widespread misunderstanding
of the real aims and purposes OF the
friends Of American forest preservation
the American Forestry Associati ton mas
thought it advisable to issue an eXplana-
tory circular the subject. This docu-
ment reviews the present forest policy
from its inception in the act of March
8, 1891, which provided that the Govern
ment should own and hold in perpetulty
certain lands other than those needed for
its immediate purposes or those set aside
for parks. This action was based upon
the perception that forest cover on
slopes and mountains must be maintained
TO regulate the flow OF streams; TO pre-
vent erosion, and thereby to maintain
favorable conditions in the plains below.
For quarter Of century, successive
Secretaries of the Interior and Commits
sioners OF the Land Office have urgently
asked for legislative relief in view OF the
wholesale destruction of forests on the
public domain by theft and fire; bat their
representations have gone unheeded. In
1887 the American Forestry Association
prepared an elaborate measure, which, in
modified form, came to be known as the
Paddock bin, providing for the withdrawal
of all timber lands on the public domain
from entry or other disposal, setting the
same aside as public forest reservations,
and instituting a fully organized service
in the Department of the Interior to take
care OF such forest reserves, protecting
them against fire and theft, regulating
their occupancy by prospectors, miners
and herders, and permitting the cutting
and sale of the timber under system OF
licenses and under application OF rational
forestry methods
The only tangible result or this reason
able proposition came in the shape OF a
clause inserted in an act to repeal timber
culture laws, passedin the closing hours OF
the Fifty-first Congress- This clause, under
which all the national forest reservations
have been made, authorized the President
to set apart aud reserve as public reserya-
tions public lands wholly or in part bearing
forests, whether OF commercial value or not.
Underthis fragmentarylaw Presidents lar
rison and Cleveland have acted In the alb
sence of specific legislation the Secretaries
OF the Interior have construed the feserva-
ton of these lands as a withdra wal, not
only from sale and entry, but from al use
whatsoever. This was never the intention
of the projectors Of the forest reservations.
As might have been expected, this CON
dition of affairs resulted in strong oppo-
sition in States where large areas were
withdrawn from utilization, and the oppo-
sition was greatly increased by the further
reservation Of about twenty million acres
last February. In consequence, the Senate
adopted a clause in the sundry civil bill
restoring these lands TO the public domain.
The House, in conference, modified this, but
the bill itself failed to become a law, and
the matter is still open.
The whole trouble appears to lie between
the demand of selfish local interests, that
they shall be allowed to continue in Che
work Of plundering and destroying the re-
naming forest cover or the continent, with
out the slightest reference to conservation
or reforestation, and the indifference or
ignorance of committees and members, who
will not consider and pass a reasonable and
equitable measure, providing for the gen
eral resery alton OF what forests he Govern
ment has left, and for the utilization of
their resources and products under reason
able and scientific regulations and restrlc-
tions.
The lesson OF the great flood, now de-
vastating the grand central valley of the
continent, ought to bring the Congress and
the country to their several senses in rea-
ton 20 this vital question of national pro-
lection.