East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1922-03-22
FOREST SERVICE CHIEF
PRESENTS PAPERS ATTACK


Is WASHINGTON, d. c., March 22.-,
THE Washington Post said Col. w
B. Greeley Chief of the Forest Ser
vice, today, "is seriously misinformed
when it says:
The Forest Service dictates the
course of roads within the national
forests, and prevents the construction
of highways which are required in the
public welfare. II halts farmers
,bw in search of drink of water at
spring lying few feet within for
est area II denies to pioneering
! farmer the right to acquire few feet
If timbr adjoining his homestead. 1t
sells off the timber on a mining claim,
denying the timber TO the miner. who
must send sometimes thousands of
| miles for a few sticks of timber which
/ might have been cut from his own
/ claim. 1t disposes of timber to for
1 eign countries at a time when domes-
tic needs are unsupplied. 1t does not
| create additional forest to replace that
|, which is cut, but clngs to lands which
|, are not forested at all, and refuses to
4 permit them to be opened for homes.
/ Alaska is locked up, u useless trea-
Il sure-h house."
i "If one-tenth of what the Post has
said were true,' added Col. Greeley,
1T would be high time for house
cleaning in the Forest Service. But
there Is not a vestige of truth in any
of these statements. Here are few
facts which any one may verify.
ANY public road may be built in
the National Forests without even OBJ
tanning the approval Of the Forest
Service. Nearly $17,000,000 of Fed
eral funds have been spent on Ma
tional Forest roads and 80 per cent OF
these projects were proposed in The
first instance by the States, or bS
their counties or communities. Loca
agencies have cooperated in building
most of them.
.Since 1905, when the. Forest. Ser
vice assumed control of the Nationa
Forests, over 1910. 100000 board fee
of timber have been given withou
charge to settlers and prospectors
From $4,000 to 10000 people Obtain
such timber every year. Over 1907
900 head of farm animals are gTazet
yearly by local settlers on the Ma
tionaf Forests without charge.
1.-THE Forest Service refuses to al
low public rights in the forests to b
held up by fake or fraudulent claims
but it scrupulously avoids the sali
of timber on any mining claim which
the Interior Department accepts al
valid.
'"The Forest Service secured the
enactment of law which made
homesteading possible in the Nationa
Forests, and it has opened over 21,000
homesteads to entry under that law
Besides this. it has. eliminated some
25,000,000 acres of land from the
National Forests during the past IL
years, making them available to entry
under the general homestead laws.
We still have a lot of treeless land in
high mountains above timber line.
We still lhave large areas. of treeless
land which were put in tho National
Forests at the insistence of the Recla-
! nation Service for the protection of
watersheds supplying their reservoirs,
| or at the insistence of private water
| users associations.
''The Forest Service does not dis.
pose of timber to foreign countries.
While ii has no control over the ex-
port laws of the United States, it has
repeatedly refused to even negotiate
with foreign corporations for the
sale of National Forest timber.
There are 2O,OO0.0O0 acres of
young and growing trees within the
National Forests as the result of
keeping fire out of large areas which