Our national forests

by Richard H. D. Boerker

The Act of March 3, 1891. The Division of Forestry was designed by the nature of its duties to be more than a bureau of information. The existence of a governmental department to promulgate forestry principles while the Government itself had made no provision to apply such principles to its own permanent timberlands was an incongruity that suggested further legislative action. This was in part supplied by the law of March 3, 1891, which conferred upon the President the power to establish Forest Reservations. The first exercise of power under this act was the presidential proclamation creating the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve under President Harrison on March 30, 1891. This was probably the wisest step yet taken in the development of a National Forest policy; but, unfortunately, the act left the Division simply a bureau of information as it was before.

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.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESERVES UNDER THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE

The Act of June 4, 1897. The Secretary of the Interior in 1896 requested the National Academy of Sciences, the legally constituted advisor of the Government in scientific matters, to investigate, report upon, and recommend a National Forest policy. This resulted in the Act of June 4, 1897, under which, with subsequent amendments, the National Forests are now being administered. Under this act the Reserves remained in the hands of the General Land Office, Department of the Interior. It charged this office with the administration and protection of the Forest Reservations. Later the Geological Survey was charged with surveying and mapping them, and the Division of Forestry was asked to give technical advice. It is very evident that the Division of Forestry containing all the trained scientific staff had no relation to the government forestry work except as the offices of the Department of the Interior might apply for assistance or advice. It is true that an important step had been taken, but the complete separation of the administration by the General Land Office and the force of trained men in the Division of Forestry was a serious defect.

The Act of June 4 might be called the Magna Charta of national forestry. The U. S. Geological Survey undertook the task of surveying, classifying, and describing the Forest Reservations. At a cost of about one and one-half million dollars over 70,000,000 acres of Forest Reserves were mapped and described. The General Land Office undertook the administration and Forest Superintendents and Rangers were appointed to take charge of the Reservations. The rules and regulations for administering the Reserves were formulated by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.