810 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



requesting eliminations of timbered lands or any other areas, no matter 

 how properly they may be in the Forest. The exercise of initiative by 

 the department in this regard removes the possibility of delayed action 

 based on public petitions, and clarifies the boundary situation by making 

 it apparent and reasonable on the ground what character of land is 

 National Forest land and what is not. For the last few years the lands 

 work in the Service has been so organized and the policies so well de- 

 veloped that decisions are early reached and action taken either to elimi- 

 nate or retain lands reported in classification reports, and the logical, 

 reasons are on record for the action taken in each case. The action is- 

 therefore defensible, and any petitions subsequently received are imme- 

 diately considered and a justifiable and reasonable conclusion reached. 



One of the most difficult lines of work has been the protection of the 

 Forests from fraudulent claims. Early in the administration the land 

 office was instructed to obtain reports from the Service on land claims 

 in the Forests. To properly protect the Forests it has been necessary 

 to examine all claims, and it has been necessary through the legal staff 

 to combat through land-office procedure many fraudulent claims in- 

 volving millions of feet of the most valuable timber. The present-day 

 labor on these cases involves mineral claims, coal claims, oil claims, 

 reports on claims under the Act of June ii, 1906, of which there are a. 

 considerable number, and applications for reduction of cultivation: 

 under the homestead laws. 



Of our present-day problems, the land-exchange work and the recre- 

 ational and other uses loom the largest. 



Nearly 12 per cent of all lands within the boundaries of the National 

 Forests are privately owned, and 145^ per cent of all lands inside the- 

 boundaries in Oregon and Washington, or 1,681,830 acres, are privately 

 owned. Most of this area is non-agricultural timber lands, some of 

 which has been cut over. The presence of these privately claimed lands 

 increases the cost of administration and decreases its effectiveness, both 

 in fire protection and in silvicultural and other work. The big work 

 in front of the office of Lands is to segregate the private from the Gov- 

 ernment lands to the benefit of both parties. Special acts have been 

 passed for this purpose on some Forests, such as the Paulina and 

 Ochoco acts, which provide for exchanges on the basis of equal area 

 and value. This form of legislation, although in advance of the old 

 Forest Reserve lieu land exchange law, which provided for exchange 

 on the basis of equal area alone, still leaves much to be desired. It is 

 difficult to work out an exchange on the basis of equal area and value. 

 Usually the private owner cares very little about area. It is value for 



