NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



Working on Administrative Problems ute 



' ^^ CCUPanCy f 



nrnerl Under the homestead law it is impossible 



Associate Forester A. F. Potter has returm ^ ^ to secure kgal tide tQ unsur . 



recently from a trip of about a i yeyed public land; but occupancy pending sur- 



confer with national forest officers on the yey ig recogn i z ed as giving a prior claim to 



ministrative methods of the Forest Service the land after surveV) un der what is known 



and to take up with them the questions ot ag squatters ' rights." A squatter who had, 



changes in procedure considered desirable by .^ gQod faith> taken posses sion of a piece of 



the Secretary of Agriculture and national forest land before the national for- 



ester. He visited the offices of the distr egts wefe create( j j s no t dispossessed of his 



foresters at Missoula, Mont, Portland, Ureg., claim by the Forest Service, and if he lives 



Ogden, Utah, and Denver, Colo. At Missoula n k and cult i vates it until the land has 



and Portland he attended meetings of all been surveye( j ) he is able to get his homestead 



the forest supervisors of ^Montana, northern . ag though he had settled on any part of 



Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Mr. Potter t h e unreserved public domain. But since the 



attended the meeting at Missoula during t passag e of the Act of June 11, 1906, which 



early part of the week of March 21 to 20, mits the Secretary of Agriculture to list 



and the meeting at Portland during the latt for sett i ement i an d which he finds chiefly 



part of the same week. valuable for agriculture, it has been possible 



Secretary Wilson is anxious that in apply- for squatters to apply for the listing of then- 



ing the national forest policy the fullest co ]ands under t his Act, and thus to obtain title 



sideration compatible with the welfare of the prior tQ the governme nt survey. The object 



forests be given to users and to persons en- of the ngw order o f t h e Secretary is to pro- 



titled under the land laws to patents of na- yide for thg listing o f t h e full amount of land 



tional forest land. The listing of agricultural w hj cn t he occupant would receive if he exer- 



lands within the national forests, permitted ciged hig opt j on o f awa iting the government 



by the law of June 11, 1906, when the land is surveV) irrespective of whether or not the en- 



found to be actually more valuable for agn- tire afea ig cu i t i v able, provided the claim is 



cultural purposes than for its timber, is an es bona fide and the land j s not more valuable 



tablished part of the Forest Service work. Com- for itg t i mber than for agriculture. 



plaint has been made in some quarters that Secretary Wilson's order is as follows: "A 



forest officers have shown an excess of zeal m person w h o has settled upon and continuously 



opposing bona fide claims, and that the Forest occup i e( i unsurveyed lands within a national 



Service has been too strict in applying the law forest before its creation and is at the pres- 



permitting agricultural settlement. While the en( . t j me occup ying such lands in good faith 



great majority of such complaints have been and ig in all re spects complying with the 



found, on investigation, to be without just i lornest ead law, has the right to include within 



cause, Secretary Wilson regards it as worth the lines of his homestead 160 acres after the 



while to inquire whether any modifications of land ig surv eyed. Therefore, if the land is oc- 



the present procedure are called for to insure cup i e d f or agricultural purposes. and is not 



that his wishes are actually carried out. more va i ua ble for its timber than for such 



This does not mean that any departure from purpos es,and there are no circumstances which 



the policies which have governed the admin- wou id j n the opinion of the District For- 



istration of the national forests is contem- ester tend to discredit the bona fides of the 



plated. It may be, however, that the details c i a i man t, he should be allowed to make ap- 



of the administrative work require looking p ii ca tion for the patenting of such lands un- 



after in some particulars to insure that the der the Act o f j une II; ^^ an d the exami- 



decisions of field officers actually apply the na tJ O n for listing should be made with a view 



principles laid down for the Forest Service, of i{ st j n g : 6o acres of land where possible. 



and it is to inquire into this matter that the Tbe tracts as listed should conform so far as 



Secretary authorized Mr. Potter to make his practicable to the form of the public land sur- 



trip. veys. The listing of lands as above should 



not in any way govern the determination of 



Ri8 h,s in Nation,, Forests MU" ?ppKT 



p 



bona fide squatters upon unsurveyed land cases where less than 160 acres of land has 

 which has been included within national for- been listed to a person who settled upon the 



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