A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 751 



on behalf of forest preservation expressed in the memorial to Congress 

 adopted by the Colorado Constitutional Convention in 1876 was 

 genuine seems unquestionable. The mandate of the State constitu- 

 tion requiring that the legislature should enact laws both "to prevent 

 the destruction of, and to keep in good preservation, the forests upon 

 the lands of the State, or upon lands of the public domain the control of 

 which shall be conferred by Congress upon the State", was another 

 expression of the same solicitude. But the enactment by Congress 

 of laws working in the opposite direction was very actively aided by 

 men elected to that body from Colorado; the laxity of the admin- 

 istration of the public land laws under Secretary of the Interior 

 Teller a Colorado man between 1882 and 1885 was outstanding; 

 and not until the latter year did the legislature of Colorado give heed 

 to the constitutional mandate. The law then passed provided for the 

 appointment of a forest commissioner to have care of the woodlands 

 of the State, to protect them against trespass and fire, and to make 

 and publish reasonable rules and regulations for their protection and 

 for the conservation of forest growth; but this was principally a ges- 

 ture. A prominent citizen of the State who was for years among the 

 most active advocates and backers of forestry was appointed Forest 

 Commissioner, serving at first with no salary at all, but was unable to 

 accomplish anything of importance; and about 1891 the effort was 

 halted through discontinuance of the appropriation. Thus came to 

 an end the first effort to establish forest administration in Colorado. 



Before leaving the subject it should be said that the law made 

 county commissioners and road overseers forest officers who should 

 guard against fire and depredation, with authority to arrest offenders; 

 the expenditures in any county for protection of the forests were 

 limited to $100 in any year. 



California made a more impressive record. Its " State Board of 

 Forestry" was the first agency designed to be of permanent character 

 created by any State to have charge of its forestry interests. The 

 board comprised three unsalaried members, with authority to appoint 

 a salaried secretary and with an appropriation of $5,000 for the first 

 biennium. With the second biennium the appropriation was in- 

 creased to $29,500. The duties of the board were to collect and 

 disseminate information, to conduct investigations and experiments, 

 to encourage the preservation and planting of forests and the main- 

 tenance of water resources, and also to assist in enforcing and carry- 

 ing out all National and State forestry laws. 



The board proceeded with much energy and ability to develop a 

 highly promising, comprehensive program, and to build up an organi- 

 zation. In 1887 its officers and employees were endowed with the 

 powers of peace officers for making arrests when laws applying to 

 forest or brush lands within the State were broken. A body of agents 

 was created to aid in law enforcement and protection against forest 

 fire. 



In California, as in Colorado, the inertness of the Federal Govern- 

 ment in protecting the public domain timberlands from spoliation 

 and the great ravages of forest fires created sentiment for State 

 ownership and administration of the public domain timberland. An 

 expression of this sentiment took the form of a bill introduced into 

 Congress and reported favorably by the Public Lands Committee, in 

 1887, to withdraw from sale public domain forest lands in California 



