FORESTRY ADMINISTRATION ON INDIAN 

 RESERVATIONS 



By J. P. Kinney 



Forestry Branch, U. S- Indian Service 



Subsequent to receiving a request from Mr. Zon that I present to 

 the Society an outline of the forestry work being done in the Indian 

 Service, I drew from its quiet resting place in my library, No. 3 of 

 Volume X of the Forestry Quarterly and read again an article entitled 

 "Forestry on Indian Reservations" that I prepared in July, 1912. It is 

 astonishing how thoroughly one can forget in ten years, and I was really 

 surprised when I found the last paragraph of that article to read as 

 follows: 



"And, now when every Indian shall have received an allotment, 

 what is to be done with the surplus timberland? This question can be 

 answered only by the Congress of the United States. On about a score 

 of reservations in the western States there are large areas of timber- 

 land which will not be needed for allotment and which are not adapted 

 to agriculture. These timberlands include high mountain slopes, as on 

 the Flathead and Warm Springs Reservations, volcanic ash land which 

 is not subject to irrigation and is wholly unfit for agriculture, as upon 

 the Klamath Reservation, or natural forest soil, as on the Quinaielt. 

 These areas should unquestional)ly be maintained as forest lands. The 

 regulations approved June 29, 1911, and the general forms of contract 

 adopted earlier in the same year, make provision for the conservative 

 cutting of timber from all areas of this character. Although the ulti- 

 mate status of these lands is yet imdetermined, the writer is confident 

 that the forest cover will be maintained whether the lands shall continue 

 to be held as Indian tribal property or be acquired by the United States 

 for National Forest purposes." 



These words brought back to my mind the hours of serious thought 

 that I gave in 1910 and 1911 to the question of the status of Indian 

 timberlands. and to the problem of the administration of these lands in 

 such manner as to fully maintain their value as national resources with- 

 out impairing the private property interests of the owners and without 

 interfering with the very important task of developing habits of industry 

 and economic independence among the Indians. A close study of the 

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