ER N EST S . GRIP F ITH 19 



fronts seems likely to prevail — with each ipso facto serving as a yard- 

 stick on the other. 



In forest management, also, a somewhat similar convergence has 

 become apparent as between public and private forestry. In 1941, the 

 "tree farm" movement was formally launched, with its philosophy 

 that timber is a crop and its objective of sustained yield. This steadily 

 gained adherents, especially among the larger timber interests, some 

 of whom had earlier introduced such practices. At the same time, dif- 

 ferentiated, intelligent use and intensive management made steady 

 progress in the Forest Service. The findings of research as to sus- 

 tained yield, watershed management, fire fighting, insect and disease 

 control were translated into policy. The single-purpose attack on 

 Forest Service ownership and management by certain of the private 

 grazing interests was rebuffed in Congress. Politics continued to swirl 

 around the Forest Service, but it was by groups which felt the need of 

 factual justification of their case — and more and more congressional 

 decisions (as well as those within the Service) were based on such 

 justification. 



So also in the field of minerals. One would hesitate to say that the 

 days of spurious claims or of ruthless exploitation were over. Yet the 

 Multiple Mineral Development Act of 1954 resolved some at least 

 of the conflicts between mineral leasing and the general mining laws. 

 The further revision of the mining laws in 1955 revealed additional 

 progress in the direction of maturity — a maturity marked in this in- 

 stance by the policy of safeguarding, so far as still was practicable, 

 the vegetative surface for the public interest. Without entering into 

 the merits of the controversy, the Al Serena case in 1956 illuminated 

 the state of public opinion on the subject. The whole discussion cen- 

 tered around the merit of the mining claim. It was assumed that in 

 the absence of such merit, the use of the valuable timber rights was 

 totally unwarranted. At least local opinion, and probably national as 

 well, would have winked at such an assumption not too many years 

 ago. 



Nowhere more than in recreation is it apparent that a new and 

 powerful element has been added to resource management. Popula- 

 tion pressures; the shortened work week; the presence of three gen- 

 erations of boy scouts in the community; the drama of the CiviUan 



