The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1912-11-23
Want SFTTLFRSON
FOREST RESERVES

Tor homestead in the national forests
up to August /, 1912. in the Fourtb
distrlet: ms district embraces Utah,
most OF Nevada, southern Idaho, west
eih wyoming and the Arizona strip
north of the Colorado river.
MI. Reed is in charge of the land
classifeation of the national forests
with headquarters at Washington, D.
Z. tie has been in Utah attending the
sessions OF the forest officials and left
Tuesday for San Francisco, saws the
Herald Republican.
New Duties of Department.
On the subject of agricultural
lands within the national forests and
the methods of making them subject
to entry, Assistant Mr. Reed said that.
since the forest homestead act was
subsidiary to the former acts by an
thority of which the national forests
were created and which define the pur-
pose of their creation, the forest ser.
vice has been and is charged with the
duty of seeing to it that the lands
listed and eliminated from the forests
serve their highest purpose by such
action. For instance, the act of June
4, 1897, declares the purpose of the
creation of the national forests to be:
To improve and protect the for
est within the reservations or for the
purpose of securing favorable condi-
tions of water flows and to furnish
continuous supply of timber for the
use and necessities of the citizens of
the United States
1T was not intended to include
within the national forests land chief.
lly valuable for agricultural purposes,
but since there were small tracts of
such land scattered through the for
est areas it was impractical to so ar
range the boundary lines to exclude
them,o said Mr.. Reed. "This situa-
/ tion was met in part at least by the
forest service urging the passage of
the Forest Homestead act of June IL,
/ 1906, which authorized the secretary
of agriculture to list with the secre.
/ tary of the interior descriptions of
tracts of land chiefly valuable for ag-
riculture.
| In determining the purpose for
which lands were chiefly valuable, it
was, in view of the statements in the
lew by virtue of which the forests
were created. necessary to consider
carefully whether the listing of any
given tract of land would be apt to
interfere with the declared purposes
of the national forests, which made it
necessary to examine the lands sought
as agricultural in order that the secre-
4 tary of agriculture may have suffi-
/ cient facts upon which to exercise the
/ discretion vested in hum by the law
I In other words, one law declared to
! Al lnx Al a..
were created and placed in his care to
( serve definitely stated public use upon
which private interest must not be
allowed to infringe, while another and
/ later law permitted him to allow
homestead settlement upon such areas
as, in his opinion, could be so occu-
! pied without detrimentally affecting
the main purposes for which the ma
tional forests were established.
/ Bureau Wants Settlers.
! "Right here | want to say that, re-
gardless of any assertions to the con-
/ trary neither the secretary of agricul-
I ture nor the forester nor, so far as L
have been able to ascertain, any MEM
! ber of the forest service organization,
I is or has been opposed to homestead
settlement within the national forests
when such settlement did not require
/ the alienation of land which the law
/ intended, in fact directed, the secre-
/ tary to retain in order that he might
/ properly perform his plain duty as I'M
posed by the law. On the contrary
we recognize the actual bona fide
settler and homebuilder in the forests
as one of the more desirable and eff
/ fective means of proper care and pro-
! lection of the forests. A home in the
/ forest in times of stress, such as when
I fires are menacing or destroying for
est growth, can be drawn upon as an
emergency base of supplies and for
/ help in preventing or fighting fires.
They also help in the care of the
roads and telephone lines and in other
WAYS have rendered such material as
sistance as to make them so welcome
that settlement upon the agricultural
lands in the forest is heartily welcom-
ed by the department.
Service Has Special Fund.
| "On account of the press of other
4 lines of work and the lack of spe-
eific fund for the purpose, the exam
nations to determine the location and
extent of the agricultural lands in the
forests have heretofore generally been
made only upon application. The last
session of congress, however, having
made special appropriation for the
poruose that work is now being uosh-
ed as rapidly as possible with the hope
that before long the amount and the
actual location of the agricultural
lands in the national forests will be
of record
I As an illustration of what the for
est service has already done along
this line Mr.. Reed gave the figures fof
the Fourth district. According to hi
statement 2,4o5 applications had beer
received for homesteads in the nation,
al forests to August l, 1912. Three
hundred and ffty-fve of these nad
teen withdrawn and after eliminating
those for lands not listable or that
was already alenated or withdrawn
nv the land office for some other pur-
noses. 1921 tracts or total OF 10y,
l033.4S acres were listed for entry.
1 mn anti