AN ANOMALOUS CONDITION—FOREST RESERVES WITHOUT FOREST ADMINISTRATION
The Need of Administration on the Reserves. At first thought it will be seen that this piece of legislation must necessarily remain inoperative unless it were followed by the establishment of a proper administration of the Reserves based upon sound forestry principles. Furthermore, the law withdrew from public use all such lands that might be acquired under it. It was now easy for the Government to acquire lands; the question that next presented itself was how to protect and regulate the use of these new acquisitions. Forest protection cannot be secured without forest rangers and forest guards; nor forest management without technical foresters. The very reasons for establishing the Reserves would point to the absolute need of a system of managing them. These reasons were briefly:
"to prevent annual conflagrations; to prevent useless destruction of life and property by fires, etc.; to provide benefit and revenue from the sale of forest products, fuels, and timbers; to administer this resource for future benefit; to increase the stock of game; to promote the development of the country; to give regular employment to a professional staff; to secure continuous supplies of wood and to get the maximum amount of good from each acre."
Such arguments as these assume the presence of a force of men to protect and administrate these Reserves.
More Reserves Created. In spite of this serious fault in the Act of March 3, 1891, more Forest Reservations were created. By 1894 Presidents Harrison and Cleveland had created about 17,500,000 acres and on a single day, February 22, 1897, President Cleveland proclaimed over 20,000,000 acres. By the close of 1897 a total of almost 40,000,000 acres of Forest Reserves had been established.
During the six years following the law giving the President power to establish Reserves, the Reserves were under the jurisdiction of the General Land Office. The appropriations of Congress were small, amounting to less than $30,000 annually. Such appropriations were used mainly for testing timber strength and the conditions affecting quality.