COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 319 



forest corps. This part of the program was not regarded by 

 the committee, or at least by some of its members, as of primary 

 importance. Stress was, however, laid on the desirability of 

 offering relatively high rates of compensation and providing 

 for retirement, in order to attract men of integrity who would 

 render intelligent and conscientious service. 



To provide for the proper establishment of new forest re- 

 serves, the committee recommended that a board of forest 

 lands should be created, composed of an officer of the Engineer 

 Corps of the Army, an officer of the Geological Survey, an 

 officer of the Coast Survey and two persons not connected with 

 the Government service, whose duty should be to fix the boun- 

 daries of such reserves. 



These and other recommendations were summarized by the 

 committee in its report which closes as follows: ^'" 



" I. That the Secretary of War, upon the request of the Secretary of the 

 Interior, shall be authorized and directed to make the necessary details of troops 

 to protect the forests, timber, and undergrowth on the public reservations, and in 

 the national parks not otherwise protected under existing laws, until a perma- 

 nent forest bureau in the Department of the Interior has been authorized and 

 thoroughly organized. (See bill No. i.) 



" 2. That the Secretary of the Interior shall be authorized and directed to issue 

 the necessary rules and regulations for the protection, growth, and improvement 

 of the forests on the forest reserves of the United States ; for the sale from them of 

 timber, firewood, and fencing of actual settlers on and adjacent to such reserves, 

 and to the owners of mines legally located in them for use in such mines; for 

 allowing actual settlers who have no timber on their own claims to take from the 

 reserves firewood, posts, poles, and fencing material necessary for their immediate 

 personal use; for allowing the public to enter and cross the reserves; for granting 

 to county commissioners rights of way for wagon roads in and across the reserves; 

 for granting rights of way for irrigating ditches, flumes, and pipes, and for 

 reservoir sites; and for permitting prospectors to enter the reserves in search of 

 valuable minerals; for opening the reserves to the location of mining claims under 

 the general mineral laws; and for allowing the owners of unperfected claims or 

 patents, and the land-grant railroads with lands located in the reserves, to 

 exchange them under equitable conditions for unreserved lands. (See bill No. 2, 

 sees. 2-4.) 



"'Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1S97, pp. 64, 65. 



