SERVICE NOTES FOR JANUARY 



These notes contain instructions and necessary information for 

 Forest officers, and will, therefore, be carefully read and kept on file 

 for reference. 



OFFICE OF THE FORESTER 



LAW 



Drift Fences, etc., on the Public Domain- 

 Several conferences have been held between representatives of the Department of 

 the Interior and the Department of Agriculture in reference to drift fences and small 

 enclosures with stock-watering tanks, wells, etc., which have been erected within or 

 along the boundaries of National Forests under permits by the Forest Service and 

 which will be left upon the public domain by proclamations eliminating certain 

 areas from National Forests. As a result of these conferences, the Secretary of the 

 Interior has written a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture, in which he states that, in 

 reference to such drift fences and pastures, the Department of the Interior will not 

 remove, or take steps to remove, them until ninety days after the date when the 

 proclamation of elimination shall become effective, provided that the enclosures do 

 not interfere with the rights of settlers and would-be entrymen under the public-land 

 laws. He further states, in reference to small enclosures with stock-watering tanks, 

 etc., that the Interior Department will initiate no action for the termination of such 

 use until the expiration of the term specified in the Forest Service permit, provided 

 that the enclosures are immediately removed at the expiration of the time so specified 

 or prior thereto in case the lands in question should be entered under any of the 

 public-land laws. 



In order that the Department of the Interior may be informed with regard to drift 

 fences and enclosures which have been thus erected under Forest Service permit, the 

 Secretary of Agriculture has agreed, upon any Forest elimination affecting such fences 

 or enclosures, to send a list thereof to the Secretary of the Interior as soon as the proc- 

 lamation is made effective. 



Since the Secretary of the Interior can not protect the Forest Service permittees 

 against bona fide settlers who file on the lands so enclosed, it would seem advisable 

 that Forest officers should inform the stockmen interested that they can obtain 

 adequate protection by filing upon the lands in question themselves. 

 Correspondence with the Interior Department 



All Forest Service correspondence with the Interior Department or with the officials 

 of the General Land Office will hereafter be as follows: 



1. All classes of correspondence hitherto addressed to the Secretary of the Interior 

 or to the Commissioner of the General Land Office will be addressed to the Secretary 

 of the Interior and will be prepared for the signature of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



(218) 



