U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



FOREST SERVICE, 



Washington , D. C. 



The following procedure and instructions are hereby established 

 and issued to take effect February 1, 1912, governing the enforce- 

 ment of the regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture relating to 

 claims within National Forests. 



HENRY S. GRAVES, Forester. 

 Approved December 19, 1911: 

 JAMES WILSON, Secretary. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 



The administration of the National Forests is a duty imposed upon 

 the Secretary of Agriculture by law. In order prop- 

 erl ^ to discharge that duty, it is necessary that he 

 ascertain the status of all lands within the National 

 Forests. The examination of claims within National Forests by 

 Forest officers is therefore made primarily in furtherance of this object. 

 The information thus obtained oy the employees of this department 

 is, as a matter of governmental economy, placed at the disposal of the 

 Secretary of the Interior, upon whom rests the responsibility for 

 determining the title to all lands within the National Forests. 



It is not the purpose or intent of the department to initiate con- 

 tests against claimants who have entered lands in the National 

 Forests in good faith to secure a home or for other purposes recog- 

 nized by law, and in such cases no contest should be initiated upon 

 slight, technical noncompliance with the law. It is the purpose and 

 intent, however, to protect the lands of the United States within the 

 National Forests from acquisition by those who do not seek them for 

 purposes recognized by law, and when it is apparent that an entry 

 or a claim is not initiated in good faith and in compliance with the 

 spirit of the law under which it is asserted, but is believed from the 

 facts to be a subterfuge to acquire title to timber land, or to control 

 range privileges, water, a water-power site, or rights of way; or if it 

 otherwise actively and materially interferes with the essential interests 

 of the National Forest in that locality and is not made or maintained 

 in good faith, a contest should be recommended, even if the technical 

 requirements of the law appear to have been fulfilled. As to mining 

 claims, it should especially be borne in mind that good faith almost 

 necessarily exists when the claims are located on untimbered and 

 unwatered lands which control no means of access or rights of way 

 and are valueless for any occupancy purposes. 



No claims can be initiated upon lands within National Forests, nor 



. . upon lands withdrawn for National Forest purposes, 



claims* a on OI Na ex cept under the mining laws, the coal-land laws, and 



tional Forest un( } er the ac ^ of June 11, 1906 (34 Stat., 233). 



land. Claims, however, within a National Forest initiated 



