The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-01-10
PERHAM TALKS
ON NEW BILL

uN HlW JILL
Secretary Perham of the Arrowhead
Association has filed exceptions to the
ShipStead-NoIa bill as introduced
without the improvements of the Ship
Stead-Newton bill. Mr. Perham ex-
presses his sentiments regarding the
bill in the following language which
coincide with the sentiments expressed
by President Coventry of the Associa-
ton few days ago.
THE Shipstead- Nolan bill, has been
introduced in the two houses of cong
reSs, takes the place of the Shipstead-
Newton bill of the perevious session,
but without the amendments which
had been agreed to by the senate COM
mittee.
"The bill is sponsored in both In
stances by Senator Shipstead and by
the representative of the Minneapolis
district, Mr.. Nolan, who succeeded Mr..
Newton.
The bill as originally drawn, as
amended, and as reintroduced would
do three things:
Withdraw from all forms of entry
or appropriation all public lands
owned by the United States, in St.
Louis, Lake and Cook counties, north
of town so.
Restrict logging within this area,
on federal lands bordering on any
lake or stream.
Forbid alteration of water levels
within this area which would FLOOD
government lands, unless specific au-
thority' was first obtained from cong
ress. by special act covering each pro-
ject.
Commenting on the above, Mr.. Per-
ham says: This applies to an area
of 100000 acres in which nearly all
the government land has already been
appropriated" to the Superior Nat
ional Forest, and the remainder was
withdrawn from entry by President
Coolidge's order.
While many believe that the agri-
cultural district around Cook,as large
as southern Minnesota county, ought
not to be included in the wilderness
area, the Amendments that were pre-
sented by the Senate Committee were
directed chiefly toward the improve
ment Of the bill so that, in the lang
uage of the title, it would "promose
the better protection and highest
public use (of these lands) for the
production of forest products and for
other purposes"
These amendments have been taken
from the bill as now introduced.
subcommittee of both houses went
over the ground in the summer of
1928. and, as a result, the Senators
agreed on several amendments which
were adopted by the full committee In
February, 1929.
The original bill provided there must
be no logging on government lands,
except to take out dead or dying trees,
within 400 feet of any lake or stream.
After visiting the forest, the speciai
committee saw that the 400-foot line
did not make sense. If the object
was to preserve the background of the
picture from the lake, the restriction
should apply from the waters edge 70
the sky line and not to a 400-fooc
strip. They saw that cleaning out
the underground and scrub would, IN
places, improve the forest as well as
the scenery, and that clause was
changed to correspond with the idea
of forest management. Those amend
ments have been dropped from the
new bills.
The bill as first drawn apparently
met the views of those who are OPP
posed to developing the national foresc
and who do not care whether it pro-
duces anything or not and who woulG
do nothing to improve the forest
growth. The amendments would per-
NIT the forest service to build up
production The bills now presented
go back to the first position.
The immediate purpose of the bill,
quoting the senate committees report,
lis merely to safeguard lands of the
United States within the Rainy lake
drainage, south of the international
boundary" The third section of the
bill was designed to carry out the pur-
pose, providing that no change in
water levels, affecting government
land, shall be permitted within the
area without special act of congress.
The area was extended to cover not
only the Rainy river watershed, but
also the Lake Superior shores north
of Grand Marais, the committee hold
ing that the protection of lake shore
lines would embrace the whole nat
ional forest area.
But the committee agreed, after
going over the ground, that existing
laws should apply to applications
pending previous to January 1, 1928
There is only one such application,
that of the Minnesota Power & Light
Company, to complete a project in
which more than rlillion dollars
is already invested in the Kawishiw1
district near Ely. The amendment
would neither grant nor deny the ap-
plication; lie would leave it to its
course, depending on the consent OF
state authorities as to state lands and
the federal power commission as to