re;tire,ment of albert f. potter 213 



that State laws could not govern the management of Federal lands and 

 that the sooner the whole question was threshed out and a decision 

 rendered by the highest court in the country the sooner the Government 

 would be able to carry out its plans for the National Forests. Some 

 of the best law officers of the Forest Service at that time rather doubted 

 the strength of our position and questioned the wisdom of locking 

 horns with the States on such a proposition. Never for a moment, 

 however, was Mr. Potter dismayed at the opposition ; not for an instant 

 did he weaken or admit possible defeat ; and the successful ending of 

 the now celebrated "Fred Light case" was due more to Mr. Potter's 

 dogged persistency "to see it through" than to any other single cause. 



With the successful issue of the Light case came relative peace and 

 harmony in the grazing situation, and today the Forest Service has no 

 firmer friends, no stronger supporters than the western stockmen. 

 Where once they fought bitterly to reduce the Forest areas they are 

 now constantly urging either the inclusion of all the remaining public 

 domain in the National Forests or else its management under regula- 

 tions similar to those enforced on the National Forests. 



With the feeling that the big pioneer grazing work of the Service 

 has been accomplished Mr. Potter now turns over to those who will 

 succeed him the further broadening and rounding out of his whole 

 scheme of controlled grazing. That we shall miss his sound advice, 

 safe counsel, and fine leadership goes without saying. Nowhere will 

 his retirement be more generally regretted than among the stockmen of 

 the West who will hear of his resignation with deep interest, feeling 

 their industry has lost a loyal friend. With every member of the 

 Service there is a feeling that we have each suffered a personal loss, 

 for Mr. Potter's genial disposition and warm, sympathetic nature made 

 him at once the friend and adviser of all. 



It is also notable that although Mr. Potter came into the Service 

 as a practical stockman, he has never allowed his enthusiasm for the 

 Branch of Grazing and the interests of the stockmen to cause him to 

 lose sight of the fact that the National Forests were primarily estab- 

 lished for forest purposes and not as grazing commons. In all his 

 management plans he has not failed to recognize the fact that the 

 reproduction of the forests came first in any scheme of use and that 

 the stockmen must accept this idea as fundamental and inviolable. 



Mr. Potter has indeed been a pioneer. He has blazed out a trail 

 which will never be effaced, and as long as the forests stand his work 

 will remain as a monument to his persistency, tact, good judgment, and 

 broadness of vision. W. C. B. 



