328 REPORT OF THU FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



5. There are over 1,200 cities and towns which derive their domestic water 

 supply from streams rising within the National Forests. The protection of the 

 sources of these streams, both from the standpoint of the regularity of flow and 

 of purity, is of enormous importance. At the present time the Forest Service 

 may co-operate with cities and towns in the protection of their watershed so far 

 as the protection of the vegetative cover and exclusion of stock are concerned. 

 There exists no authority, however, to prevent contamination of the water 

 through the use of the land by campers, prospectors, and others. We would urge 

 legislation which would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to take such action 

 ±0 co-operate with cities and towns as is necessary to protect municipal water- 

 sheds lying within National Forests; such authority to extend to regulating the 

 use of the surface of the ground in mineral locations, or prevention of camping 

 where this action is necessary. 



6. Most of the National Parks are more or less heavily timbered and present 

 the same problem of protection from fire as the National Forests, and they present 

 also a very important phase of forest development, though the purpose of their 

 management is primarily for scenic beauty rather than the production of timber. 

 There is, in the judgment of the committee, great need of legislation looking to 

 the establishment of a Bureau of Parks, either in the Department of the Interior 

 or the Department of Agriculture. There is need also that the entire organization 

 of the National Parks should be under Civil Service protection, just as is the 

 case of the Forest Service. 



7. No reference is made in this report to needed legislation regarding the use 

 of water power sites, as that is handled by another committee. 



Section II. 

 NATIONAL VS. STATE CONTROL OF PUBLIC FORESTS 



IT is the purpose of this Committee to discuss this question from the standpoint 

 of public policy and to present it in such form that the public which owns 

 the forests may see more clearly the issues involved, and on which side of a 

 very sharply defined line its interests lie. At the outset the very title assigned 

 us, although it is the popular statement of the problem, is misleading because it 

 implies that all parties to the controversy believe in public forests and that their 

 control is the issue. In reality, knowledge of the facts and consideration of the 

 arguments used to substitute State and National control show that the underlying 

 motive of the propaganda for State control has for its object the elimination of 

 public forests. State or National. This fact should be known, and the issue 

 accepted and fought out in the open instead of from ambuscade. 



HISTORY OF NATIONAL FORESTS 



As early as 11199 the demands of our navy led to purchase 'of timber lands 

 by the general Government, but while acts were passed from time to time setting 

 apart forest lands for specific purposes, it was not until 1871 that an attempt was 

 made to secure comprehensive administration of the national forests. The at- 

 tempt failed. The following statement taken from The National Forest Manual 

 dated August 12, 1912, gives in concise form the genesis and development of our 

 forest legislation : 



