ANTI-CONSERVATION ACTIVITY 193 



of the pen, have elected to abandon an environment which has suddenly 

 become intolerable, and to surrender homes, however well-established 

 or even cherished they may have become. 



"Grazing of sheep is prohibited in most of the reserves. For want 

 of upland pasturage and water for their flocks in dry seasons, resident 

 and near-by wool growers are suddenly confronted with complete sub- 

 version of their occupation. Grazing rights that are preserved to other 

 stockmen are restricted within designated limits for a given number of 

 live stock, which must be counted in and out of reserves on given dates. 

 Timber may be cut for construction or for fuel only by measure, also 

 within prescribed limits. . . . The mine owner is cut off from neces- 

 sary uses for timber, except in small doles, adequate only to purposes 

 of the prospector. Further supplies are far from being assured, even 

 after much circumlocution and suspense in the process of application 

 for them. Timber privileges which are granted within limits to indi- 

 viduals without cost, are explicitly denied to corporations, legally 

 paradoxical as this may be." 



As Mondell once pointed out, much of the early complaint regard- 

 ing the forest reserves arose from the hurry with which the exterior 

 boundaries of the first reserves were established. Since these reserves 

 had never been carefully surveyed, it was inevitable that there should 

 be mistakes in marking the boundaries, mistakes which would some- 

 times cause hardship to settlers and others. This does not imply that 

 the reserves should not have been established, nor that they should 

 not have been established so early, for if they were to be set aside at 

 all, they had to be set aside while the country was still new and 

 relatively unknown, before private interests had taken up the most 

 valuable lands. 



EFFORTS TO OVERTURN THE RESERVATION POLICY 



Measures designed to reverse the entire policy of forest reservation 

 were almost constantly before Congress. In 1900, Representative 

 Wilson of Idaho introduced a bill prohibiting the establishment or 

 extension of forest reserves in Idaho except by act of Congress. In 

 the same session, Jones of Washington introduced two bills into the 

 House, one prohibiting the establishment of reserves in Washington, 

 and the other prohibiting their establishment in all states. Both were 



