SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 12&. 



growth, and that such lands would then be 

 opened to entry and settlement. In all the 

 forest reserves visited by your committee it 

 saw opportunities to improve their bound- 

 aries and found lands which can not be 

 permanently reserved without inflicting se- 

 rious hardships and losses on the commun- 

 itJ^ Only a small portion of the White 

 Kiver Plateau Timber Land Reserve in 

 Colorado, for example, is forest land, the re- 

 mainder being covered with grasses and 

 scattered clumps of oak bushes. Such land 

 is, of course, most valuable for pasturage, 

 and its withdrawal from use cripples the 

 important cattle industry of the region. In 

 the "Washington Forest Reserve and in the 

 Cascade Forest Reserve are mineral de- 

 posits which can not wisely be held from 

 entry, and near the borders of others there 

 are lands more valuable for agriculture or 

 fruit growing than for other purposes. 



It is evident that such lands should be 

 taken from the forest reserves as soon as it 

 is practicable to do so, but before this can 

 be done safely those parts of the public 

 domain which have been reserved, or which 

 may be reserved, should be accurately sur- 

 veyed and carefully mapped. As the United 

 States Geological Survey is the only Bureau 

 in the Department of the Interior equipped 

 for this work, it can probably most con- 

 veniently make these surveys. Their proper 

 interpretation is a matter of the greatest 

 importance, for on the men who undertake 

 it will devolve the dutj^ of establishing the 

 final boundaries of the reserved forest lands 

 of the public domain. Enormous interests 

 are involved in these final decisions, and 

 this work can be entrusted only to men of 

 the highest integrity, intelligence and public 

 spirit. Eiforts will certainly be made to 

 improperly influence their judgment, and 

 they will be subjected to severe temptations. 

 The power to open any part of the reserved 

 lands to settlement is in the hands of the 

 President of the United States, but he will 



necessarily base his decisions in such matters, 

 on the reports and recommendations of the 

 experts who are to study the results of the 

 surveys made under the direction of the 

 Geological Survey. 



To provide for this important duty, we- 

 recommend that the President be authorized 

 to appoint a commission to be known as the 

 board of forest lands, to consist of an of&cer 

 of the Engineer Corps of the Army, a mem- 

 ber of the Geological Survey, a member 

 of the Coast Survey and two persons not 

 connected with the public service, and 

 that it shall be the duty of this board to- 

 determine, with the aid of actual surveys 

 and such other examinations as may b& 

 found necessary, the boundaries of those 

 parts of the public domain which should be 

 retained permanently by the government 

 as forests, and that upon its recommenda- 

 tions the President should be authorized to- 

 open all other lands to entry and sale. It 

 is believed that the character of this com- 

 mission can be best maintained at the high- 

 est level by limiting the remuneration of 

 the two members unconnected with govern- 

 ment service to their actual expenses. 



In all the forest reserves individuals have- 

 acquired more or less perfect title to land, 

 and as they may claim that their rights are 

 interfered with, or the value of their hold- 

 ings diminished by the reservation from 

 entry of adjacent lands, opportunity should 

 be given them to exchange on an equitable 

 basis their lands or rights for those of simi- 

 lar character outside the reservations. 

 Several of the forest reserves are within 

 the limits of land grants made to railroad 

 corporations, and it should be possible for 

 the Secretary of the Interior to arrange with 

 these corporations to exchange their hold- 

 ings within the reservations for similar un- 

 reserved lands.* 



* A section on the -unreserved forest lands of the- 

 public domain sho-ws the harm that has resulted from 

 the -workinK of the land laws. 



