638 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE PERIOD OF RESERVATIONS 



Late in the nineteenth century a few far-sighted men began to 

 realize that the natural resources of the Nation were being rapidly 

 dissipated and that immediate and decisive action was needed to stop 

 the processes of destructive exploitation. It became apparent that 

 private ownership could not be expected properly to protect those 

 national values which do not return to the individual a direct, tangible, 

 and relatively early profit. Under the policy in force, the future 

 timber supply was being jeopardized by wasteful and needless exploi- 

 tation, both on private land and by trespass cutting on the public 

 domain. Large and destructive forest fires were permitted to destroy 

 great quantities of timber each year, with no concerted effort at pre- 

 vention or control. No action was being directed toward retaining the 

 forest cover on watershed lands in the interest of regulating the flow 

 of navigable rivers or of streams intensively used for irrigation. Clearly, 

 private owners recognized no responsibility for proper management of 

 timberlands with a view to future national welfare. Public ownership 

 without adequate provision for the protection of the resource from 

 misuse, theft, and destruction by fire, insects, or disease was no better. 



Appreciation of the need for conserving forest resources made rapid 

 headway under exceptionally strong leadership and found concrete 

 expression in a drive for the withdrawal from entry of lands having 

 high natural-resource value. An act of March 3, 1891, authorized 

 the President to set aside public timberlands as forest reserves. By 

 the end of Roosevelt's administration in 1909, national-forest status 

 had been given to a total gross area of 167,677,749 acres of land in 

 the continental United States. Some area has since been added, but 

 the elimination of tracts found by careful land classification to be 

 unsuited or unnecessary to the purpose contemplated had by June 30, 

 1932, reduced the gross area in the national forests to 164,752,300 

 acres. The net area as of that date was 140,003,966 acres. 



The desirability of reserving public-domain areas of peculiar scenic 

 interest was recognized as early as 1872, when the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park was created. It may properly be said, however, that the 

 establishment of reservations on a large scale was inaugurated as a 

 means of conserving the forest resource. The reservation principle 

 was rapidly broadened to include other resources as well. The act 

 of 1897, which provided for practical administration of the national 

 forests, stated that the forests were maintained "for the purpose of 

 securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a con- 

 tinuous supply of lumber for the use and necessities of the citizens 

 of the United States." Reservations on a large scale have since been 

 made for other than national-forest purposes. 



In all, approximately one fifth of the original public domain has 

 been reserved for the Nation's welfare. Some idea of the extent and 

 character of the reservations may be afforded by the following list, 

 although the list is incomplete and involves material overlapping: 



Acres 



National forests 140, 003, 966 



National parks 6, 329, 753 



National monuments 303, 880 



Indian lands under Federal jurisdiction 71, 144, 214 



Coal-land withdrawals 29, 825, 444 



Potash-land withdrawals 9, 411, 939 



Reclamation withdrawals 19, 034, 330 



