PROCEDURE AND INSTRUCTIONS. 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



FOREST SERVICE, 



Washington, D. C. 



The following procedure and instructions are hereby established to take 

 effect August 12. 1912, governing the enforcement of the regulations of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, relating to the general administration of the Forest 

 Service and the protection of the National Forests. 



H. S. GRAVES, forester. 

 Approved August 12, 1912. 



JAMES WILSON, Secretary. 



THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



THEIR PURPOSE. 



National Forests have for their objects to insure a perpetual supply of 

 timber, to preserve the forest cover which regulates the flow of streams, and 

 to provide for the use of all resources which the Forests contain, in the ways 

 which will make them of largest service. Largest service means greatest good 

 to the greatest number in the long run. It means conservation through use, 

 with full recognition of all existing individual rights and with recognition also 

 that beneficial use must be use by individuals; but without the sacrifice of a 

 greater total of public benefit to a less. In other words, the Forests are to be 

 regarded as public resources, to be held, protected, and developed by the Gov- 

 ernment for the benefit of the people. 



The injury which results from the destruction of forests by fire and ill- 

 regulated use is a matter of history in older countries, and has long been the 

 cause of anxiety in the United States. i A cheap and plentiful supply of timber 

 is important if not necessary to the welfare of communities; a forest cover 

 is the most effective means of ' maintaining a regular streamflow for irriga- 

 tion and other purposes; and the future of the western live-stock industry 

 depends upon the permanence of the range. Exhaustion of a local timber 

 supply means the cessation of lumbering and the business activities dependent 

 on it, and often leaves desolation, impoverishment, and industrial depression ; 

 there are vast public and private losses through unnecessary forest fires, while 

 a rapidly growing population creates an increasing demand for lumber. With 

 forest destruction the flow of streams becomes irregular just when develop- 

 ment of the country makes them indispensable to transportation, manufacture, 

 or irrigation. Without regulation there is serious decrease in the carrying 

 capacity of the range. In short, forest protection is vital to the public welfare. 



HISTORY OF THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. 



As early as 1799, and again in 1817, Congress provided for the purchase of 

 timber lands to supply the needs of the Navy. Other acts from time to time 

 made similar provisions for setting apart forest land for specific purposes, but 

 the first attempt to secure comprehensive administration of the forests on the 

 public domain was in 1X71, when a bill was introduced in the Forty-second 

 Congress, whieh, however, failed of passage. 



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