American Forestry 



VOL. XVII APRIL, 1911 No. 4 



STATE OWNERSHIP OF FORESTS 



By AUSTIN F. HA WES, 



State Fobesteb of Vermont. 



(This survey of a most important branch of state forest policy was originally read 

 at the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests in 

 1910. The author has been state forester of Connecticut, as well as of Vermont, and 

 is thoroughly conversant with this question from the standpoint of eastern conditions. 

 We have moved very slowly in the acquisition of state forests, but we must address 

 ourselves to that side of forestry development in all the states, as Pennsylvania has 

 notably done. The great forestry trilogy at present is fire protection, taxation, and 

 state forests. Editor.) 



GWO periods in the history of the lands of this country will probably be 

 recognized by future historians. First, the period when disposal of 

 public lands was the only policy of state and nation ; and, second, the 

 period upon which we are now entering, distinguished by the policy of reser- 

 vation or acquisition by state and nation. 



The original states of the union upon the birth of the nation found them- 

 selves rich in lands with only a scant population to utilize them. It was 

 natural that public debts, such as those due to soldiers, should be paid in land 

 grants, that public bequests, as those founding Dartmouth, Bowdoin and the 

 University of Vermont, should be in the form of land grants; and that the 

 federal government should follow the policy of granting lands as a bonus to 

 railroads building in pioneer regions. 



Massachusetts, with its great domain of wild lands in what became Maine, 

 disposed of great areas by lottery. By the Civil War most, if not all, of the 

 lands in New England had been disposed of to private owners. In other 

 parts of the country a similar course was followed, and the United States 

 has now disposed of practically all of its agricultural lands. 



Shortly after the centennial and the census of 1880, which first touched 

 upon the forest resources of the country, there began to be an interest among 

 far-sighted men in the preservation of the forests. As the best measure 

 toward this end the bill was passed by Congress making national forests 

 possible. This marked the beginning of the period of reservation and acquisi- 

 tion a movement which has resulted in the creation of national forests 

 amounting to nearly two hundred million acres and which has recently been 

 broadened out to include other natural resources. It is naturally easier to 

 secure from a legislative body the reservation for special purposes of lands 

 already belonging to the public than the purchase of such lands. This is the 



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