The San Francisco call., 1904-12-07


| purposes, and so promote settlement
! under the reclamation act. Indeed, they
are essential to the welfare of every
one of the great interests of the West.
| Forest reserves are created for two
principal purposes. The first is to pre-
serve the water supply. This is their
most important use. The principal users
I of the water thus preserved are irriga-
tion ranchers and settlers, cities and
towns to whom their municipal water
! supplies are of the very first impor-
tance, users and furnishers of water
power. and the users of water for do
nestle, manufacturing, mining and
other purposes. All these are directly
| dependent upon the forest reserves.
| The second reason for which forest
reserves are created is to preserve the
timber supply for various classes Of
wood users. Among the more impor-
! tant of these are settlers under the re-
| clamation act and other acts, for whom
a cheap and accessible supply of timber
] for domestic uses is absolutely neces-
! sary; miners and prospectors, who are
in serious danger of losing their timber
supply by fire or through export by
] lumber companies when timber lands
! adjacent to their mines pass into pri-
vate ownership: lumbermen, transpor-
tation companies, builders and CONNER
cial interests in general.
| Although the wisdom of creating for
est reserves is nearly everywhere hear
tily recognized, yet in a few localities
| there has been misunderstanding and
complaint. The following statement is
therefore desirable:
The forest reserve policy can be sue
cessful only when it has the full sup
port of the people of the West. 1t can
not safely and should not in any case
be imposed upon them against their
will But neither can we accept the
views of those whose only interest in
the forest is temporary; who are anx-
ious 10 reap what they have not sown
and then move away, leaving desolation
behind them. On the contrary, it is
everywhere and always the interest of
the permanent settler and the perma-
nent business man, the man with j
stake in the country, which must be
considered and which must decide
The making of forest reserves within
railroad and wagon road land grant
limits will hereafter, as for the past
| three years, be so managed as to pre-
vent the issue, under the act of June 4,
1897, of base for exchange or lieu Sc
lection usually called scrip. In all
cases where forest reserves within
areas covered by land grants appear to
be essential to the prosperity of settlers,
miners or others, the Government lands
within such proposed forest reserves
will, as in the recent past, be with
drawn from sale or entry pending the
completion of such negotiations with
the owners of the land grants as will
prevent the creation of so-called scrip.
1t was formerly the custom to make
forest reserves without first getting
definite and detailed information as to-
the character of land and timber with
in their boundaries. This method of
action often resulted in badly chosen
boundaries and consequent injustice to
settlers and others. Therefore, this ac-
ministration adopted the present meth
cd of first withdrawing the land from
disposal, followed by careful examIra-
ton on the ground and the preparation
of detailed maps and descriptions, be-
fore any forest reserve is created.
have repeatedly called attention to
the confusion which exists in Govern
ment forest matters because the work
is scattered among three independent
organizations. The United States is
the only one of the great nations in
which the forest work of the Govern
ment is not concentrated under one
department, in -consonance with the
plainest dictates of good administration
and common sense. The present ar
rangement is bad from every point of
view. Merely to mention 1T Is to prove
that it should be terminated at once.
AS have repeatedly recommended, all
the forest work of the Government
should be concentrated in the Depart
ment of Agriculture, where the larger
part of that work is already done,
where practically all Of the trained for
esters of the Government are employed,
where chiefly in Washington there is
comprehensive first-hand knowledge of
the problems of the reserves acquired
on the ground, where all problems re-
|
ready gathered, and where all the
sciences auxiliary to forestry are at
hand for prompt and effective cooper
alton. These reasons are decisive in
themselves, but it should be added that
the great organizations of citizens
whose interests are affected by the for
est reserves, such as the National Live
Stock Association, the National Wool
Growers Association, the American
Mining Congress, the National Irri-
cation Congress and the National
Board of Trade, have uniformly, en-
phatically and most of them repeat
edly. expressed themselves in favor of
placing all Government forest work in
the Department of Agriculture because
of the peculiar adaptation of that de-
partment for it. 1t is true, also, that
the forest services of nearly all the
great nations of the world are under
the respective departments of agricul-
ture. while in but two of the smaller
nations and in one colony are they
under the Department of the Interior
This is the result of long and varied
experience and it agrees fully with the
requirements of good administration in
our own case.
The creation of a forest service in the
Department of Agriculture will have
for its important results:
First-A better handling of all forest
work. because it will be under a single
head, and because the vast and indis-
pensable experiences of the department
in all matters pertaining to the forest
reserves to forestry in general, and to
other forms of production from the
soil, will be easily and rapidly access
ible
Second-The reserves themselves. be-
ing handled from the point of view of
the man in the field, instead of the man
in the office will be more easily and
more widely useful to the people of
the West than has been the case hith-
ertO.
Third-Within comparatively short
f;y,1o ffa ,aoorvoc will hao0,,,1 -~1e