American Forestry 



VOL. XVII JULY, 1911 No. 7 



THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 



ON JUNE 19th, the National Forest Reservation Commission met at the 

 request of the Forest Service to consider the tracts which the Forest 

 Service had examined and passed on with approval. There were present 

 at the meeting Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, Secretary of the Interior 

 Fisher, Secretary of War Stimson, Senator Smith of Maryland (Senator 

 Gallinger was the only member of the Commission not present), Representa- 

 tive Hawley of Oregon, Representative Gordon Lee of Georgia, Director Smith 

 of the Geological Survey, Mr. Graves, the Forester, and Mr. William L. Hall. 

 The Commission took no action, for the members felt that with the two tracts 

 which both the Survey and the Forest Service had examined, certain legal 

 questions must be settled once for all, and in the words of the Commission, 

 that 'Ve must start right." 



The Forest Service had made surveys and had all necessary data on nine 

 or ten tracts, three of which were in the White Mountains, and the rest in 

 the Southern Appalachians. These tracts involved 140,000 acres. But the 

 Geological Survey had examined and approved only two tracts. Tract A in 

 Georgia, of some thirty thousand acres, and Tract B in Tennessee, of some 

 sixty thousand acres. These two tracts involve legal questions as to title 

 and conditions, for most of the titles in mountain regions of the South are 

 what are known as "shot-gun" titles, and there is much uncertainty and a 

 great deal of difiiculty where the settler has taken possession and has tried 

 to farm on non-agricultural forest lands with obscure titles. 



On the other eight tracts more easily accessible and with no legal ques- 

 tions involved, which the Forest Service had approved, the Geological Survey 

 was not ready with its report. Director Smith does not seem able to cooperate 

 with the Forest Service in the way prescribed by law. His attitude is in 

 marked contrast to that of the Commission, which met on the first day appointed 

 by the Service, and gave to the consideration of its plans the most 

 cordial and enthusiastic attention. The Commission will carry out the wishes 

 of the people, as expressed in the law of March 4, 1911. But it may as well 

 be recognized now as later that the ambiguity in the law's expression as 

 to the amount of cooperation of the Geological Survey is going to be used by 

 the men who are consistently and continuously opposed to the public-spirited 

 labors of the Forest Service. 



In the consideration of lands recommended for purchase by the Forest 

 Service and approved by the Geological Survey, the National Forest Reserva- 

 tion Commission encountered certain points which seem to require further 

 consideration. 



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