14 THE USE BOOK. 



HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



As early as 1799, and again in 1817, Congress provided for the purchase of 

 timberlands to supply the needs of the Navy. Other acts from time to time 

 made similar provisions for setting apart forest land for specific purposes, but 

 the first attempt to secure comprehensive administration of the forests on the 

 public domain was in 1871, when a bill was introduced in the Forty-second 

 Congress, which, however, failed of passage. 



In 1876 $2,000 was appropriated " to employ a competent man to investigate 

 timber conditions in the United States," and on June 30, 1886, an act was ap- 

 proved creating a Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. On 

 July 1, 1901, this division became the Bureau of Forestry, which, in turn, 

 under the act of February 1, 1905, became the Forest Service. 



With the increasing realization that the Nation's forest and water resources 

 must be protected the necessity for retaining permanent Federal control over 

 selected forest areas was recognized by a brief section inserted in the act of 

 March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1095) : 



(1103) SEC. 24. That the President of the United States may, from time to 

 time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land 

 bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with 

 timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reserva- 

 tions, and the President sha.ll, by public proclamation, declare the establishment 

 of such reservations and the limits thereof. 



The mere creation and setting apart of forest reserves, however, without 

 provision for their use, was both ineffectual and annoying to local interests 

 dependent upon their resources. Consequently the Secretary of the Interior, 

 in 1896. requested the National Academy of Sciences to recommend a national 

 forest policy. This resulted in the passage of the act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat, 

 11), under which, with subsequent enactments, National Forests are now ad- 

 ministered. This act was as follows : 



(34) All public lands heretofore designated and reserved by the President 

 of the United States under the provisions of the act approved March third, 

 eighteen hundred and ninety-one, the orders for which shall be and remain in 

 full force and effect, unsuspended and unrevoked, and all public lands that may 

 hereafter be set aside and reserved as public forest reserves under said act, 

 shall be as far as practicable controlled and administered in accordance with 

 the following provisions : 



<No public forest reservation shall be established, except to improve and pro- 

 tect the forest within the reservation, or for the purpose of securing favorable 

 conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for 

 the use and necessities of citizens of the United States; but it is not the pur- 

 pose or intent of these provisions, or of the act providing for such reservations, 

 to authorize the inclusion therein of lands more valuable for the mineral 

 therein, or for agricultural ^purposes, than for forest purposes. 



The Secretary of the Interior shall make provisions for the protection against 

 destruction by fire and depredations upon the public forests and forest reserva- 

 tions which may have been set aside or which may be hereafter set aside under 

 the said act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and which may 

 be continued : and he may make such rules and regulations and establish such 

 service as will insure the objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate 

 their occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction; 

 and any violation of the provisions of this act or such rules and regulations 

 shall be punished (by five hundred dollars fine or twelve months' imprisonment, 

 or both) as is provided for in the act of June fourth, eighteen hundred and 

 eighty-eight, amending section fifty-three hundred and eighty-eight of the 

 Eevised Statutes of the United States. 



On the theory that the management of land, not Forests, was chiefly involved 

 this law gave the Secretary of the Interior authority over the Forests, and pro- 

 vided that they should be surveyed, mapped, and classified by the United States 

 Geological Survey and administered by the General Land Office. But the com- 

 plex technical problems arising from the necessary use of forest and range soon 

 demanded the introduction of scientific methods and a trained force, which could 

 not be provided under the existing system. The advice and services of the 

 Bureau of Forestry were found necessary, but under the law conld be but im- 

 perfectly utilized. The necessity of consolidating the various branches of Gov- 

 ernment forest work became apparent, and was urged upon Congress by the 



