74 FORESTRY 



compel them to properly manage forests which must be 

 protected. A better plan almost universal there is for the 

 state to acquire the ownership of such lands, and with it 

 the right to manage them wholly for the good of the depen- 

 dent communities. In the French Alps, following the revo- 

 lution, timber was cut on mountain slopes, which had prev- 

 iously been protected. The effect is historical. Torrents 

 formed and destroyed the fertile land in the valleys. The 

 population dwindled to a remnant of the original numbers. 

 The government finally began the work of controlling these 

 streams by means of brush dams and forest planting, and 

 has been wholly successful as far as the work has pro- 

 ceeded. But in every case the title to these lands was first 

 obtained by the state and under such management a repe- 

 tition of the catastrophe cannot occur. It will be found that 

 the movement for government and state management and 

 ownership of forest lands has made the most rapid strides 

 in mountainous regions. There is but little opposition to 

 government ownership of forests on high mountains whose 

 chief value is for protecton. In such forests there is sel- 

 dom any cutting done, and if at all, it is managed under 

 a system of selection which keeps the forest cover intact. 



History of National Forestry in United States. 



The movement for governmental forestry in America 

 did not gather force until quite recently, and has reached 

 its greatest development in the West. This was due to 

 two facts. The national government still owned vast tracts 

 of mountainous and forest-covered land there, and there 

 existed a man who had the breadth of insight to see the 

 future needs of the nation, and the strength of purpose to 

 achieve his ends. Gifford Pinchot became the chief of the 

 government forest service in 1897. The first large forest 

 reserves were proclaimed in 1891 and had been much in- 

 creased in size and number by President Cleveland in 1897. 

 It was easy, after the proper legislative authority had been 



