THE NATIONAL FOREST RESERVES 



By Frederick H. Neweli,, 

 Chief Hydrographe)', United States Geological Survey 



Recent discussions in Congress regardino; forest reservations 

 have drawn public attention to matters relating to forestry, and 

 many questions are being asked as. to the nature, location, and 

 purpose of our forest reservations. To answer these and similar 

 questions it is necessary to have clearly in mind some funda- 

 mental facts concerning the geography of the country, with its 

 resources and possibilities of development, especially in the por- 

 tion west of the Great Plains. 



The fact first in importance, and one that even in our own 

 country needs to be strongl}' emphasized, is that the people of the 

 United States, collectively as a nation, are still among the great 

 landowners of the world. In the eastern half of the country 

 nearly all the land formerly at the disposal of the national gov- 

 ernment has ])een disposed of, but in the western lialf the reverse 

 is the case. Fully two-thirds of the land surface is still open to 

 settlement under the homestead and similar acts, and with slight 

 limitations is free to all citizens. In many of the states within 

 this western half of the country less than one-fourth of the lands 

 are subject to taxation, the great bulk being held by the national 

 government. For exami)le, in Nevada less than four per cent 

 of the land surface has.been disposed of and about one per cent 

 has been reserved, over 95 per cent being still vacant; in Idaho 

 less that seven per cent has been disposed of ami about four ))er 

 cent reserved, a little over 89 per cent being vacant. Similar 

 conditions prevail to a somewhat less degree as regards the ex- 

 tent of public land in Wyoming, Utah, Montana. Arizona, Ni-w 

 Mexico, and Colorado, while in the great state of California, witii 

 its comparatively dense population, over one-half of the are:', is 

 vacant ; the proportion in Oregon l)eing still larger and in W'asli- 

 ington a trifie less. In the Dakotas, the western half, exci-pting 

 a small area around the Black Hills, may be considered as ahn«)st 



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