HOSTILITY TO NATIONAL FORESTS 267 



WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



Agricultural, grazing, and mineral lands are not the only natural 

 resources that the national forests have been accused of "bottling up." 

 There has recently been a great deal of complaint that the national 

 forests included many valuable water power sites and that the policy 

 of the Forest Service was so exacting as to prevent adequate develop- 

 ment of these resources. It is estimated that there is within the 

 national forests approximately 12,000,000 horse power which can be 

 developed from natural streamflow, and that this amount can be 

 increased very greatly by the construction of storage reservoirs. 



The act of 1891, providing for the creation of forest reserves, made 

 no provision for the development of power. One of the sections of that 

 act, however, provided that rights of way across the reserves might 

 be granted for irrigation purposes ; and seven j^ears later, this was 

 expanded to include the development of power, providing it was "sub- 

 sidiary to the main purpose of irrigation." In 1901, this proviso was 

 removed, and the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to permit 

 the use of rights of way through the public lands and reserves for 

 electric plants. Under this act, the permit must be approved by the 

 chief officer of the department concerned, and might be revoked by 

 the Secretary of the Interior at his discretion. This is still the law on 

 the subject, although a section was added in 1911, authorizing the 

 issue of permits for rights of way, for not to exceed fifty years. The 

 issue of such permits is, however, still at the discretion of the Secre- 

 tary having jurisdiction over the land.^® 



Under the regulations adopted by the Forest Service in 1910, a 

 certain charge was exacted of those who used power sites, and this 

 has of course aroused some opposition. Representative Martin of 

 Colorado spoke of the "dog-in-the-manger" policy of the government 

 in charging this rental. "The proposition of the government is this," 

 he said, in discussing the agricultural appropriation bill of 1912: 

 " 'It is true we do not own the water in the stream, but we happen to 

 own the land bordering the stream, land that is probably not worth 

 farming. We happen to own the only desirable and available place 



10 Stat. 26, 1101; 28, 635; 29, 120; 30, 404; 31, 790; 33, 628; 34, 163; 36, 847, 

 1253. See also Opinions, Atty.-Gen., 25, 470; 26, 421; and Proceedings, Society of 

 Am. -Foresters, Apr., 1913, 5 et seq. 



