FOREST SERVICE. 205 



ground has been largely increased, so that local questions may be 

 decided on local grounds. The work on the reserves is closely and 

 frequently examined and reported on by the inspectors. Rangers are 

 authorized to transact much of the minor business. Trained foresters 

 are or will be assigned as technical assistants to the supervisors on all 

 of the more important reserves. In addition to the regular inspectors, 

 all officers in charge of special lines of work in the Forest Service act 

 as inspectors on the reserves in their lines, and these assistants work 

 under them on the preparation of forest survej^s, plans for lumbering 

 and planting operations, plans for protection against fire, and many 

 other matters. 



The form of organization places the whole administrative authority 

 in the office of the Forester, and at the same time provides for the 

 conduct, by every other office of the Service, of work on the reserves 

 within its special field. 



LEGISLATION. 



. The act of February 1, 1905 (33 Stat. L., 628), besides providing 

 for the transfer of forest reserves to the Department of Agriculture, 

 stipulates that forest supervisors and rangers shall be selected when 

 practicable from qualified citizens of the States or Territories in 

 which the reserves are situated. It also provides that rights of way 

 within forest reserves for the construction and maintenance of dams, 

 reservoirs, water plants, ditches, flumes, pipes, tunnels, and canals, 

 for municipal or mining purposes, are to be granted by the Secretary 

 of the Interior. The last section provides that all money received 

 from the sale of any products or the use of any land or resources 

 of forest reserves shall be covered into the Treasury for a period of 

 five years and form a special fund for the protection, administration, 

 improvement, and extension of the reserves, to be expended as the 

 Secretary of Agriculture may direct. 



The laws providing for the relinquishment, selection, and patent- 

 ing of lands in lieu of tracts covered by unperfected claims or patents 

 within forest reserves were repealed oil March 3, 1905. This removes 

 one of the most troublesome questions connected with the creation 

 and administration of forest reserves. 



By the act of February 6, 1905 (33 Stat. L., 700) all persons 

 employed in the forest reserve and National park service are given 

 authority to arrest for the violation of laws, rules, and regulations 

 governing forest reserves and National parks, and persons taken in 

 the act of violating such laws, rules, and regulations may be arrested 

 without process. This act also provides for the export of timber and 

 other forest products from reserves in the United States and Alaska, 

 except from'those in Idaho and the Black Hills Eeserve m South 

 Dakota. 



The President was authorized by the act of January 24, 1905 (33 

 Stat. L., 614). to set aside suitable areas in the Wichita Forest Ee- 

 serve as a game refuge, these areas to be under such special regula- 

 tions as the Secretary of Agriculture may make, provided they do 

 not interfere with the State or Territorial game laws. This was done. 



