4§ Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



of the proposal to transfer the y National Forests from the General 

 Land Office to the old Bureau of Forestry, and thus to unite the 

 forest work of the Government under a single head. For more 

 than three years, as I remember it, his recommendations for the 

 transfer were made to Congress, while the personal pressure which 

 he exerted was by far the strongest factor in our final success. 

 Without him it would have been wholly impracticable to bring the 

 transfer about. It was Roosevelt who made the Forest Service 

 possible. 



It tells but little of the story to say that Roosevelt saved for us 

 more National Forests than all other Presidents put together. 

 He not only created but defended and preserved them, and when 

 Congress finally took from him the power to add to their number, 

 at the last moment he saved to the people of the United States 

 some 16,000,000 acres more of mountain forest lands. He did 

 it by using the method which has meant so much to forestry and 

 conservation in America, by out-thinking the opposition. 



It was William T. Cox, now State Forester of Minnesota, who 

 came to me with the suggestion that Roosevelt should save this 

 forest land before the objectionable provision had passed both 

 houses. When I took Cox's suggestion to him, the President 

 approved it with enthusiasm ; the Forest Service was ready ; the 

 necessary field studies had been made ; the maps had been drawn ; 

 we knew what we wanted and we knew how to get it. It remained 

 only to prepare the official proclamation for each addition to the 

 existing National Forests. 



For forty-eight hours the drafting force of the Forest Service 

 worked night and day. As fast as they prepared the proclamations 

 they were taken to the White House. As fast as he received them 

 the President signed them, and sent them at once to the State De- 

 partment for safe keeping. Thus Roosevelt saved from destruction 

 and set aside for all the people an area more than half as large as 

 the State of Pennsylvania, and did it in the short interval while 

 the bill was passing and before it passed. 



No other President has ever been, and doubtless no other ever 

 will be, as practically familiar both with the forest and the range as 

 was President Roosevelt. It was in the early part of his administra- 

 tion that the forest and grazing problem in the Southwest became 

 the livest question before the Bureau of Forestry. To the huge 

 gain of the nation as a whole, Roosevelt was thoroughly equipped 



