1899. 



AMERICAN FQRESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



201 



people desire is a forest management of 

 these important mountain water-sheds 

 that will serve the highest interests of 

 the entire community. Interests built, 

 up under the neglect and waste and 

 abuses of the Government's forestal 

 mistakes and laches should be treated 

 with all the consideration that the safety 

 of the communities affected and the 

 welfare of the great majority of the 

 people will permit. 



All foresters, and especially all fores- 

 ters in the Southwest, endorse, and must 

 endorse a Federal forest policy, whether 

 the forest management pays its way or 

 not. 



The Government forestry systems of 

 European nations, of Canada, Algiers, 

 India and Australia, are self-sustaining, 

 and for the most part bring in consider- 

 able revenues. Curiously enough, it is 

 in the countries like Spain, Arabia, 

 Persia and Turkey, in which forestry is 

 neglected, where national productive 

 power has most diminished, and in 

 which both nation and people individu- 

 ally are poorest. 



The success of other countries in 

 maintaining national forest systems in- 

 vites our attention to this subject. 



The principal revenue from all forest 

 systems is from the sale of forest pro- 

 ducts. These are mainly merchantable 

 timber and fuel. The Western districts 

 in which the principal areas of public 

 lands exist, are situated so that one part 

 or another of California would resemble 

 their conditions closely enough for pre- 

 liminary plans and outlines of forest 

 management appropriate for the entire 

 Western public land area. 



California contains mountains and 

 plains, valleys, farm lands and deserts. 

 In the northwest its climate is one of. if 

 not the moistest in the United States; 

 in the southeast it is one of the most 

 arid. In the Redwood belt there is a 

 very large rainfall, and almost continu- 

 ous fog and mist between the rainy sea- 

 sons. In the Cocopah desert years pass 

 without a drop of rain, or even a cloudy 

 day. California conditions, carefully 

 considered, can do much to outline a 



forest and public land policy. What is 

 the public land situation here? 



California contains 99,361,083 acres of 

 land, of which 



The area appropriated is 40,392,418-acres^ 

 The area unappropriated is 43,841,044 "'... 

 The area reserved is 15,127,621 " 



99,361,083 acres. 



This gives a substantially accurate 

 picture of our land situation. In the 

 other Western States the public lands 

 are in much larger proportion, as an an- 

 nexed table will show. 



The above figures, however, do not 

 give the exact facts. Of the appropri- 

 ated area some has gone to the State for 

 taxes. In some of the mountain coun- 

 ties this tax area is quite considerable. 

 The State Comptroller and the county 

 officers thus far have found no general 

 record of this tax land, therefore no one 

 can now tell to what it amounts. 



Of the area reserved, a considerable 

 part is patented and in private hands. 

 In some reserved districts, the propor- 

 tion of private holdings is large, in oth- 

 ers very small. 



The National Yosemite Park, of about 

 one million acres area, is a little more 

 than half in private hands The San 

 Gabriel Reserve, from the Cajon West 

 has a very small proportionate area in 

 private hands, while the San Bernardino 

 part of the forest reserves of the South 

 has a considerable area in private hands. 



The Reserve System suggests the pol- 

 icy of Switzerland. In that republic ex- 

 perience has demonstrated the immedi- 

 ate and often awful results of forest de- 

 nudation on steep, high mountains to 

 lower agricultural lands 



From this experience has been evolved 

 a forest system which lays out as a part 

 of its functions forest reserve districts. 

 The lands within these, whether public 

 or private, are under public control, and 

 not a tree can be cut without public au- 

 thority. We may come to this system 

 some day. 



There are in this State about 83,000 

 square miles of public lands in the 

 hands of the Federal Government. An 



