1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



401 



thing the Government has ever spent 

 upon its forest work is a small price 

 to pay for the knowledge that the 

 streams which make your prosperity 

 can be and are being freed from the 

 ever-present threat of forest fires. 



The long-standing and formerly 

 bitter differences between the stock- 

 men and the forest officers are nearly 

 all settled. Those which remain are 

 in process of settlement. Hearty co- 

 operation exists almost everywhere be- 

 tween the officers of the Forest Service 

 and the local associations of stockmen, 

 who are appointing advisory commit- 

 tees which are systematically consulted 

 by the Forest Service on all questions 

 in which they are concerned. This 

 most satisfactory condition of mutual 

 help will be as welcome to you as it is 

 to the Administration and to the stock- 

 men. To the stockmen it means more, 

 and more certain, grass ; to you, be- 

 cause of the better protection and 

 wiser use of the range, it means 

 steadier stream-flow and more water. 



The sales of forest-reserve timber to 

 settlers, miners, lumbermen, and other 

 users are increasing very rapidly, and 

 in that way also the reserves are suc- 

 cessfully meeting a growing need. 



Lands in the forest reserves that 

 are more valuable for agriculture than 

 for forest purposes are being opened 

 to settlement and entry as fast as their 

 agricultural character can be ascer- 

 tained. There is therefore no longer 

 excuse for saying that the reserves 

 retard the legitimate settlement and 

 development of the country. On the 

 contrary, they promote and sustain 

 that development, and they will do so 

 in no way more powerfully than 

 through their direct contributions to 

 the schools and roads. Ten per dent 

 of all the money received from the 

 forest reserves goes to the States for 

 the use of the counties in which the 

 reserves lie, to be used for schools and 

 roads. The amount of this contribu- 

 tion is nearly $70,000 for the first year. 

 It will grow steadily larger, and will 

 form a certain and permanent source 

 of income, which would not have been 

 the case with the taxes whose place it 

 takes. 



Finally, a body of intelligent, prac- 

 tical, well-trained men, citizens of the 

 West, is being built up men in whose 

 hands the public interests, including 

 your own, are and will be safe. 



All these results are good ; but they 

 have not been achieved by the Forest 

 Service alone. On the contrary, they 

 represent also the needs and sugges- 

 tions of the people of the whole West. 

 They embody constant changes and 

 adjustments to meet these suggestions 

 and needs. The forest policy of the 

 Government in the West has now be- 

 come what the West desired it to be. 

 It is a National policy wider than 

 the boundaries of any State, and larger 

 than the interests of any single in- 

 dustry. Of course it can not give any 

 set of men exactly what they would 

 choose. Undoubtedly the irrigator 

 would often like to have less stock 

 on his watersheds, while the stockman 

 wants more. The lumberman would 

 like to cut more timber, the settler and 

 the miner would often like him to cut 

 less. The county authorities want to 

 see more money coming in for schools 

 and roads, while the lumberman and 

 stockman object to the rise in value of 

 timber and grass. But the interests 

 of the people as a whole are, I repeat, 

 safe in the hands of the Forest Service. 



By keeping the public forests in the 

 public hands our forest policy substi- 

 tutes the good of the whole people for 

 the profits of the privileged few. With 

 that result none will quarrel except the 

 men who are losing the chance of per- 

 sonal profit at the public expense. 



Our western forest policy is based 

 upon meeting the wishes of the best 

 public sentiment of the whole West. 

 It proposes to create new reserves 

 wherever forest lands still vacant are 

 found in the public domain, and to 

 give the reserves already made the 

 highest possible usefulness to all the 

 people. So far our promises to the 

 people in regard to it have all been 

 made good ; and I have faith that this 

 policy will be carried to successful 

 completion, because I believe that the 

 people of the West are behind it. 

 Sincerely, yours, 



Theodore; Roosevelt. 



