THE MINNESOTA NATIONAL FOREST 



RESERVE 



BY 

 EUGENE S. BRUCE 



Inspector, U. S. Forest Service 



IN view of the many misleading 

 A statements that have been pub- 

 lished with the express object of in- 

 fluencing public sentiment against 

 the Minnesota National Forest Re- 

 serve, the following facts may inter- 

 est those who want to know the real 

 situation regarding this reserve and 

 the steps taken in its formation. 



The Morris amendment to the Nel- 

 son Bill provided that the Forester of 

 the Department of Agriculture select 

 200,000 acres of land classified as 

 "Pine land" from lists to be furnished 

 him by the Secretary of the Interior 

 from certain described ceded Indian 

 lands. The classification of these in- 

 dian lands was to be made by the In- 

 terior Department, the forester having 

 nothing to do with the classification. 



In classifying the Indian lands only 

 two kinds of land were allowed to be 

 recognized "Pine lands," those upon 

 which there was merchantable pine 

 timber, and "agricultural lands," 

 which included all other lands, 

 whether burns, barrens, muskegs, 

 swamps, marshes, or boggy shores of 

 lakes. 



By the terms of the Morris Bill, 

 25,000 acres of lands classified as 

 "agricultural" were to be included 

 with the 200,000, which, at the time the 

 act was passed, was thought would be 

 amply sufficient to consolidate the 

 area selected. The fact that there 

 were only two kinds of land to be 

 distinguished, accounts for the large 

 area classified as "agricultural," the 

 greater part of which is absolutely 

 worthless for "agricultural" purposes. 



At the time of the passage of the 

 Morris Bill there were no maps avail- 

 able which showed the Indian allot- 

 ments. "Agricultural" and "Pine 



lands," in fact, a large portion of the 

 Indian Reservations was not classi- 

 fied at the time, which explains why 

 there was no way of knowing just 

 how much land other than pine land 

 would have to be included to consoli- 

 date the area selected. 



The very apparent intention of the 

 legislators was to allow a sufficient 

 amount of lands classified as "agri- 

 cultural" to be included to make the 

 area selected for the Minnesota Na- 

 tional Forest Reserve one solid, com- 

 pact body. The system of classifica- 

 tion, however, made it impossible to 

 consolidate the area with only 25,000 

 acres of so-called "agricultural" land, 

 the amount specified in the Morris 

 Bill. 



It has been charged that the seleo 

 tion of that portion of the Reserve in 

 the vicinity of the village of Cass 

 Lake was an injury to the inhabitants. 

 The obvious reply is, that the most 

 compact body of classified "pint 

 lands" on the Reservation, and con- 

 taining the lowest precentage of lands 

 classed as "agricultural," is comprised 

 in the townships which border on 

 Cass Lake and those contiguous to 

 them. Moreover, if these townships, 

 which were almost entirely classified 

 as "pine land" had been excluded, it 

 would have been impossible for the 

 forester to comply with the provisions 

 of the Morris Bill, and select 200,000 

 acres of "Pine lands" in anything ap- 

 proaching a contiguous area or with 

 any possibility of consolidating the 

 Reserve in such form that it could be 

 protected and administered properly 

 and economically. The first selection 

 for the Reserve contains the largest 

 acreage of compact "Pine lands" and 

 the smallest percentage of lands class- 



