FOREST SERVICE. I7l 



character of the attractions is such that administration of the lands 

 as National Parks will result in their highest use, has been fully 

 recognized by the Forest Service. Establishment of the fact that the 

 highest use of the land will be secured by making it a National Park 

 is in effect another form of land classification. 



The reasons, then, for the reductions in area have been: 



(1) To cut out of the Forests, through boundary changes, lands 

 not important for National Forest purposes. 



(2) To cut out, also through boundary changes, lands which could 

 not in 'practice be successfully administered because of the large per- 

 centage of intermixed private holdings. 



(3) To open to agricultural settlement lands which, although 

 valuable for National Forest purposes, will serve their highest use as 

 farms. This has been accomplished partly through boundary 

 changes, but mainly through listing for settlement as interior hold- 

 ings. 



(4) To open to mineral development lands chiefly valuable for this 

 purpose. This is brought about by the operation of the laws under 

 which the Forests are open to prospecting and the locating and pat- 

 enting of mineral claims. 



(5) To make National Parks. 



Underlying all of these reasons is the basic principle of determin- 

 ing the highest use to which the land can be put. 



Such a determination is necessary to a right classification of the 

 land. It can be made only in the light of a careful study of the 

 potential value of the land for various specific purposes. To deter- 

 mine that it is chiefly valuable for forest purposes involves knowledge 

 not only of what value it has for other purposes but also of the kind 

 of use it will serve, and the public value of this use, under National 

 Forest administration. Value for watershed protection, for timber 

 production, for grazing, for recreation, for water-power development, 

 and for various incidental uses must all be taken into account. Cor- 

 rect principles of land classification and a right application of these 

 principles in dealing with specific areas are basic to successful de- 

 velopment of the Forest properties. 



PRESENT STATUS OF LAND CLASSIEICATION. 



In the six years that have elapsed since the first special appropria- 

 tion item for land classification became available, 150,579,380 acres 

 have been covered by field examinations and the results embodied in 

 reports aiid maps which have been submitted to and approved by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture. Excluding the lands purchased under the 

 Weeks Law and not subject to agricultural classification and home- 

 stead entry, the lands still unclassified total 24,609.499 acres, of which 

 21,013,205 are in Alaska. Of the 3,596,194 acres outside of Alaska 

 still remaining unclassified more than 2,500,000 acres are in Cali- 

 fornia, Much of the field work on all the lands still remaining un- 

 classified has been completed and maps and reports embodying the 

 results were in course of preparation at the close of the year. _ Before 

 •the close of the current year it is expected that the work will have 

 been brought to substantud completion, except for the two National 

 Forests in Alaska. 



On these two Forests work was begun last year. In the Chugach 

 it resulted in approval by the Secretary of Agriculture of the elimi- 



