A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



1163 



worthless and the lands selected in lieu thereof the finest and most 

 valuable timberlands remaining in public ownership. The Federal 

 departments could only protest against the law and urge its repeal, 

 which finally was accomplished by the act of March 3, 1903 (33 Stat. 

 1246). 



Because of the unsavory record of the Forest Lieu Selection Act, 

 Congress naturally looked askance at any and all ensuing proposals 

 to acquire privately owned lands by grants of other public resources 

 or by cash payments. It was not until March 13, 1908, that the 

 first national forest land exchange law was enacted ; that relating only 

 to the Crow Creek National Forest, Wyo. February 18, 1909, an 

 act was approved permitting selections of unreserved public lands 

 for private lands in the Calaveras Big Tree groves in California; 

 and on February 28, 1911, another act authorized consolidations 

 through exchanges in the Kansas National Forest in the State of 

 that name. The act of March 4, 1911, authorizing exchanges within 

 national forests in the State of Oregon was the first land-exchange 

 measure of more or less general application. Other acts followed in 

 quick succession until at present there are on the statute books a 

 total of 56 acts of more or less general application and 13 which author- 

 ize exchanges with specifically named private owners or of specifically 

 described lands. The date, statutory citation, field of operation, and 

 major provisions of each of these acts are shown in table 1. 



The. fundamental difference between the objectionable Forest Lieu 

 Selection Act and the various acts listed in table 1 is that the latter 

 are all wholly in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior and/or 

 the Secretary of Agriculture and are operative only upon affirmative 

 showing that a given exchange is definitely in the public interest and 

 will vest in public ownership values at least as great as those granted 

 in exchange. They do not endow the private landowner with any 

 legal right or power to demand or compel an exchange nor do they 

 sanction exchanges purely or primarily for the convenience of the 

 private landowner. There must in each case be a demonstrable and 

 dominant public purpose and benefit. 



TABLE 1. Acts of Congress authorizing exchanges within the various national 



forests, Aug. 15, 1932 



