Our Forest Reservations 



will not of itself preserve either the timber or the 

 game on them. The various national parks are 

 watched and patrolled by Federal troops, but even 

 for them no provisions of law exist by which those 

 who violate the regulations laid down for their care 

 may be punished. The forest reservations are abso- 

 lutely unprotected. Although set aside by presiden- 

 tial proclamation, they are without government and 

 without guards. Timber-thieves may still strip the 

 mountain-sides of the growing trees, and poachers 

 may still kill the game without fear of punishment. 



This should not be so. If it was worth while 

 to establish these reservations, it is worth while 

 to protect them. A general law providing for the 

 adequate guarding of all such national possessions 

 should be enacted by Congress, and wherever it 

 may be necessary such Federal laws should be 

 supplemented by laws of the States in which the 

 reservations lie. The timber and the game ought 

 to be made the absolute property of the govern- 

 ment, and it should be constituted a punishable 

 offense to appropriate such property within the 

 limits of the reservation. The game and the timber 

 on a reservation should be regarded as government 

 property, just as are the mules and the cordwood 

 at an army post. If it is a crime to take the latter, 

 it should be a crime to plunder a forest reservation. 



The national parks and forest reservations which 

 already are, or by proper protection may become, 

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