Forestry and Irrigation 



VOL. XI. 



MARCH, 1905. 



No. 3. 



NEWS AND NOTES 



In spite of a short ses- 

 National Forest sion and a ca l en dar 

 Legislation. , , . , 



crowded with impor- 

 tant measures requiring prompt con- 

 sideration, Congress found time to 

 enact some important forest legisla- 

 tion at the session recently closed. The 

 most important of the several meas- 

 ures passed and a decided forward step 

 in forest matters was the bill which 

 transferred the administration of the 

 national forest reserves from the De- 

 partment of the Interior to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, notice of 

 which was made in the February num- 

 ber of FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. In 

 this connection it is well to state that 

 beginning July ist, the Bureau of 

 Forestry will be know as the "Forest 

 Service." The change of name being 

 provided for in the agricultural appro- 

 priation bill. 



A matter of great importance 

 was the repeal of the lieu selection 

 law, which n >w makes it impossible for 

 persons holding lands within forest 

 reserves to exchange them for equal 

 areas elswhere in the public domain as 

 heretofore. 



In the agricultural appropriation bill 

 a provision of much importance to va- 

 rious communities in the West pro- 

 vides that : "The Secretary of Agri- 

 culture may, in his discretion, permit 

 timber and other forest products to be 

 cut and removed from the forest re- 

 serves, except in the Black Hills For- 

 est Reserve, in South Dakota, and the 

 forest reserves in Idaho, to be export- 

 ed from the State, Territory, or Dis- 

 trict of Alaska, in which said reserves 

 are respectively situated." This makes 

 it possible for lumbering to be en- 

 gaged in and will greatly help the 

 prosperity of the regions surrounding 

 the reserves. A new departure in 



creating forest reserves is contained 

 in a provision in the Indian Appropri- 

 ation bill, which provides that the 

 President may set aside by proclama- 

 tion, such part as he sees fit of the 

 Uintah Indian Reservation in Utah as 

 a. national forest reserve. Heretofore 

 the President has been empowered to 

 set aside forest reserves only from 

 lands actually a part of the public do- 

 main. The general deficiency appro- 

 priation bill includes a deficiency item 

 of $50,000 for the care of forest re- 

 serves. A separate act authorizes the 

 Secretary of the Interior to use earth, 

 stone, and timber on the public lands 

 and forest reserves, in the construc- 

 tion of works under the National Re- 

 clamation Act. Still another bill ex- 

 cludes from the Yosemite National 

 Park certain lands, and attaches the 

 same to the Sierra Forest Reserve. A 

 further act gives all persons employed 

 in the forest reserve and national park 

 services in the United States, author- 

 ity to make arrests for the violation of 

 regulations of the forest reserves and 

 national parks. A bill was also passed 

 for the protection of wild animals and 

 birds in the Wichita Forest Reserve, in 

 Oklahoma. 



Congress and Elsewhere in this issue 



the Public of FORESTRY ANDlRRI- 



Lands. CATION is printed the 



full text of the second partial report of 

 the Public Lands Commission. The 

 public lands question is of such vital im- 

 portance and the report deals with it 

 so clearly in a small space that we feel 

 it should be in the hands of every 

 reader. 



One of the most far reaching pieces 

 of legislation of this latest session of 

 Congress was the repeal of the lieu 

 selection law, thus preventing the loca- 

 tion in the future of all forest reserve 



