GENERAL LAWS, PARTS OF LAWS, DECISIONS, AND 

 OPINIONS APPLICABLE TO THE CREATION, AD- 

 MINISTRATION, AND PROTECTION OF NATIONAL 

 FORESTS. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL FORESTS AND GENERAL 

 POWERS OF ADMINISTRATION (NATIONAL MONUMENTS 

 AND GAME REFUGES.) 



Act of March 3, 1891 (2G Stat. 1095), to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes. 



[1103] SEC. 24. That the President of the United States may, from Creation of Na- 

 time to time, set apait and reserve, in any State or Territory having tl( 

 public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in 

 part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value 

 or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public 

 proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the 

 limits thereof. 1 



Agricultural appropriation act of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1256). 



[1269] * * * Forest reserves * * * shall be known hereafter Designation of 

 as National Forests * * * 



Sundry civil appropriation act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat., 11). 



[34] * * * To remove any doubt which may exist pertaining to President em- 

 the authority of the President thereunto [in regard to the National yoke r modify F or 

 Forests], the President of the United States is hereby authorized and suspend Execu- 

 empowered to revoke, modify, or suspend any and all such Executive tive orders or 

 orders and proclamations, or any part thereof, from time to time as he pr 

 shall deem oest for the public interests: * 



[36] The President is hereby authorized at any time to modify any President may 

 Executive order that has been or may hereafter be made establishing any JJJJ^ J^^ e *<? c ~ 

 forest reserve, and by any such modification may reduce the area or 

 change the boundary lines of such reserve, or may vacate altogether 

 any order creating such reserve. 



Agricultural appropriation act of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat., 1256). 



[1271] Hereafter no forest reserve shall be created, nor shall any No new forests 

 additions be made to one heretofore created within the limits of the certaln^states. 1D 

 States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, or Wyoming, 

 except by act of Congress. (California added by act of Aug. 24, 1912, 

 p. 9, post.) 



Act of February 1, 1905 (33 Stat., 628), providing for the transfer of forest reserves from 

 the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. 



The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall, from and after Transfer of Na- 

 the passage of this act, execute or cause to be executed all laws affecting careof SecreLry 

 public lands heretofore or hereafter reserved under the provisions of of Agriculture, 

 section twenty-four of the act entitled " An act to repeal the timber- 26 Stat., 1095. 



1 The public lands are held in trust for the whole people, not for the people of the 

 States within which they are located. The Government has in its lands all the rights 

 of an individual proprietor to maintain its possession and prosecute trespassers. It 

 may deal with them as an individual may deal with his lands. It may sell or withhold 

 them from sale or settlement. It may absolutely prohibit or fix the terms on which 

 they may be used. The constitutional declaration that "Congress shall have power to 

 dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or the 

 property belonging to the United States" (Art. IV, sec. 3), places in Congress authority 

 and discretion to exercise the above rights and powers; and Congress may therefore 

 reserve or authorize the President to reserve public lands as National Forests with- 

 out the consent of the State within whose borders they lie. (Light . United States, 

 MO U. 8., 23, and cases therein cited.) 



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