376 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



keep clear of inflammable material a strip of 

 varying width, as conditions may demand, up 

 to 200 feet beyond the right of way, and to 

 provide all locomotives which do not burn 

 oil with suitable spark arresters and other 

 standard equipment to prevent the dropping 

 of fire. It is also stipulated that every effort 

 will be made by the companies to operate 

 their locomotives so as not to cause fires. 

 The protective strip is to be designated 

 jointly by representatives of the railroad and 

 the Forest Service. 



In fighting fires the railroads and the Forest 

 Service will cooperate closely. Prompt noti- 

 fication to forest officers of all fires discov- 

 ered by employes of the railroads is provided 

 for. Telephone lines to make this possible 

 will be put up by the Forest Service, using 

 the companies' poles where this is desirable. 

 Warning whistles will be sounded by loco- 

 motives on occasion. Forces of fire fighters 

 will be assembled on the outbreak of fires, 

 made up of forest officers, railroad employes, 

 and such temporary labor as can be gath- 

 ered by either. Except for salaries of regu- 

 lar employes, the cost of fighting fires which 

 start within 200 feet of the railroads will be 

 borne by the companies and of all others 

 by the Forest Service, unless it shall be shown 

 in the first case that the railroads were not 

 responsible or in the second case that they 

 were responsible for the outbreak of the 

 fire. 



The agreement provides that the Forest 

 Service will regularly patrol the rights of 

 way during the fire season. The work of 

 clearing the strips satisfactorily, including 

 disposal of all slash and refuse, is to be per- 

 formed by the railroads under the super- 

 vision of the Forest Service. 



)^ «? )^ 



Grazing Lands in the National Forests 



Some of the senators from the Rocky 

 Mountain states frequently and emphatically 

 assert that the people in their states are 

 hostile to the inclusion of so much of the 

 national domain in national forests and rep- 

 resent that this destroys the development of 

 the country and interferes with the rights and 

 opportunities of individuals. Grazing^ is one 

 of the industries which they assert is seri- 

 ouslv injured by a national forest policy. 

 That this is not true is clearly shown by the 

 fact that so many protests have been re- 

 ceived by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture against the elimination from na- 

 tional forests of non-timbered lands that are 

 chiefly valuable for grazing, that Secretary 

 Wilson has found it necessary to make a 

 statement in regard to this question, ex- 

 plaining that the department acts under cer- 

 tain limitations in carrying out the intent of 

 existing laws. "Most of the protests," he 

 said, "set forth injuries which may result 

 from unregulated grazing on the land to be 

 eliminated." 



We have an example of this in a copy of 

 a petition which was sent some time ago to a 

 western senator by some of his constituents 

 asking that the boundaries of one of the na- 

 tional forests in the northwest be enlarged 

 to include a certain specified area. This petition 

 was signed by a number of ranchmen, most 

 of them small owners. It is the small owners 

 who benefit by the grazing regulations of the 

 national forest and are protected against the 

 oppression of the large ranchmen who gather 

 in the opportunities which are not protected 

 by these regulations. 



The department further explains that the 

 lands proposed to be eliminated are neither 

 forested now nor regarded as suitable for the 

 future growing of trees, so that the govern- 

 ment has no authority to hold them as part 

 of the national forests, their actual character 

 having been determined. 



The policy recently agreed upon by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary 

 of the Interior, and approved by the Presi- 

 dent, is not an innovation, but is the same 

 polic}^ which has always been applied by the 

 Forest Service in deciding where national 

 boundaries should be drawn. The reason why 

 lands formerly included in national forests 

 are now being eliminated is to be found not 

 in a change of policy, but in the fact that 

 the actual conditions were ascertained last 

 year for the first time through careful 

 boundary examinations. 



The evils feared by those who are now mak- 

 ing protest against the exclusion of the lands 

 in question are usually of two kinds. In many 

 places, residents find themselves likely to 

 suff^er from an invasion of the range by out- 

 siders. If the grazing is uncontrolled, tran- 

 sient stock may not only eat up the forage, 

 but also deplete the range through over- 

 grazing, to the loss and even the eventual 

 ruin of the local stock owners. Although 

 Secretary Wilson recognizes that this may be 

 the case, he has pointed out to those who 

 make this argument that government control 

 of lands valuable only for grazing was not 

 contemplated by the laws authorizing the 

 creation of national forests, except as far 

 as is necessary to secure practical admin- 

 istrative boundaries. 



Another ground of protest against the 

 eliminations is that administration by the 

 Department of Agriculture has already re- 

 sulted in great improvement to the water- 

 flow, or that unregulated grazing will result 

 in polluted streams or serious damage to 

 watersheds. In some cases the increase in 

 water supply which has followed national 

 forest administration is put as high as 

 twenty-five per cent. To those who make 

 this point, Secretarj^ Wilson is replying that 

 every effort has been made to safegttard 

 water supplies; that the eliminations pro- 

 posed are only along the borders of the 

 forests, and the protection of water-flow is 

 recognized as a legitimate reason for re- 

 taining brushland even though it is not likely 



