THE FUTURE OF FEDERAL FOREST 



RESERVATIONS.* 



I 



BY 



EDWARD A. BOWERS, 



SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION, FORMERLY ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF THE 



GENERAL LAND OFFICE. 



THE existing federal forest reserv- 

 ations were created only after 

 a long struggle. Those of us who were 

 engaged in the efforts that finally re- 

 sulted in the passage of the act of 1891, 

 authorizing the creation of forest reser- 

 vations by presidential proclamation, 

 and the act of 1897, which inaugurated 

 their administration in accordance with 

 sound ideas of forestal management, 

 recollect how we were constantly met 

 with the honest contentions of many 

 men residing in the regions where it 

 was proposed to create these reserva- 

 tions, with the statement that the whole 

 idea was impracticable. They con- 

 tended that it was physically impossible 

 to protect such great areas from de- 

 struction by fire, or to measurably pre- 

 vent despoliation of the public timber 

 by persons cutting it without warrant 

 of law. They further said that the 

 withdrawal of such large areas of land 

 by the federal government, thus ex- 

 cluding it from state taxation, was a 

 hardship upon their respective states, 

 without any corresponding benefit to 

 the states, and maintained that the 

 pioneers who were developing the coun- 

 try were entitled to the same free use 

 of timber and of the range as had been 

 accorded to their forerunners. In short, 

 they felt that the whole idea was a 

 fanciful emanation from the brains of 

 eastern enthusiasts, who knew nothing 

 whatever of the real situation. 



While some converts have been made 

 among the residents of the states where 

 these reservations exist, I fear that too 

 many of their citizens would still in- 

 dorse the above objections to forest res- 

 ervations, and for this reason it seems 

 to me that the most important thing to 



insure the future success not only of 

 these reservations but also of a forestry 

 policy by the United States, lies in show- 

 ing that these contentions are without 

 foundation, and thus convert the popula- 

 tion most immediately interested in the 

 future of the federal forest reservations. 

 How can this be done ? To this ques- 

 tion there seems to be the one answer 

 which has thus far prevailed in the de- 

 velopment of the United States that is 

 to appeal to the intelligence of our peo- 

 ple and educate them as to what the real 

 purposes of these reservations are ; to 

 show them that the reservations are of 

 vital interest both to the people in their 

 vicinity and also to the more remote 

 communities far down the streams that 

 head in the reservations. In this cam- 

 paign of education constant and repeated 

 explanation that these reserves are cre- 

 ated for the use of their forests and for 

 the regulation of the streams must be 

 made. 



In emphasizing this feature that the 

 reservations are created for practical 

 purposes, it seems to me that the idea 

 which to some extent prevails, that they 

 are created for their natural beauties and 

 as game preserves, should be minimized. 

 While the reserves will naturally become 

 the resorts and homes of our wild ani- 

 mal and bird life, and, so far as it can 

 readily be done, these should be pro- 

 tected, still it must not be forgotten that 

 the primary purpose of the forest reser- 

 vations is a practical one. They are 

 created for the purpose of supplying 

 wood material perpetually to the people 

 of the United States and of maintain- 

 ing natural water conditions so as to 

 make extended irrigation more and 

 more possible, and, by thus maintaining 



* Paper read at the summer (1903) meeting of the American Forestry Association at Minne- 

 apolis, Minn. 



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