The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-02-22
WITHDRAW lands
FROM RESERVES

boundaries carried on by the forest Of
icers last summer and fall upon the
initiative of Secretary Wilson and un-
der his direction, has resulted in new
information, which will make it possi-
BILE to restore to the unreserved pub
lie domain much land along the edges
of and within forests that is not best
suited to forest purposes. This is to
be done under plan just approved by
President Taft. The plan was for
mulated by Secretary Wilson and Sec
retary Ballinger jointly and submitted
to the president in the following let
ter:
Washington, Feb Is, 1910.
The President, the White House,
Sir: After having very carefully
considered the matter of eliminations
from and additions to the national for
ests, we respectfully recommend that
the following general policy be
adopted:
l. Lands wholly or in part covered
with brush or other underground which
protects streamflow or checks erosion
on the watershed of any stream import
ant to irrigation or to the water sup
ply of any city, town, or community,
or open lands on which trees may be
grown, should be retained within the
forests, unless their permanent
value under cultivation is greater than
their value as protective forest.
2. Lands wholly or in part covered
with timber or underbrush, or cut-over
lands which are more valuable for the
production of trees than for agricul-
tual crops, and lands densely stocked
with young trees having a prospective
value greater than the value of the
land for agricultural purposes, should
be retained within the national for
ests.
8. Lands not either wholly or IN
part covered with timber or under
growth, which are located above timber
line within the forest boundary or in
small bodies scattered through the for
est, making elimination impracticable,
or limited areas which are necessarily
included for proper administrative
boundary line, should be retained with
in the national forests.
4. Lands not either wholly or in
part covered with timber or under
growth, except as provided for in the
preceding paragraphs, upon which it 10
not expected to grow trees, should he
eliminated from the national forests.
Very respectfully,
JAMES WILSON,
Secretary of Agriculture.
R. A. BALLINGER,
Secretary IF the Interior.
A definition of the lines along which
action should be taken was called for
by the fact that reports and maps are
now in the possession of the depart
ment Of agriculture which show the
character of the lands and the cover
along the lines Of the national forest
boundaries. The purpose of the depart
ment in securing this information was
to make possible correction Of the
boundaries on the principles now ap-
proved by the president, for it has new
er been intended that the national
forests should include agricultural
land or grazing land not suitable for
forest purposes. Plans for gathering
the data were drawn up under Secre-
tary Wilson's direction year ago, and
instructions for going over the 10000
miles of boundaries were issued to the
national forest omcers last May. AS
result the boundaries can now be more
carefully corrected than has ever be-
fore been possible.
On the whole the changes which are
found to be called for are of relatively
minor Importance, but in their aggre-
gate they open to settlement large
of land. The application of
the rules which the president has ap-
proved will mean the early restoration
to the public domain of 100000 acres
or more of national forest land. This
is somewhat over two per cent of the
total national forest area. Three
tenths of the forests have yet to be
Some of the land is suitable for dry
land agriculture, though the greater
part is grazing land. In Idaho, which
has a large national forest area, about
100000 acres will be eliminated, of
which "a per cent is tillable. Elimina-
tions in similar proportion will be made
in number of the other western states
which have large amounts of land in
forests.
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