238 Proceedings oe the 



ence to forestry in my own State — Wyoming — ^would 

 not be out of place, as conditions there are typical of 

 conditions generally. 



When Wyoming was admitted to statehood in 1890 

 its area was 62,641,920 acres. Since that time over 

 ten per cent, of the area of Wyoming has been with- 

 drawn from public settlement and created into forest 

 reserves. The State has given up for the general 

 public good an area larger than the State of Massachu- 

 setts, larger than New Hampshire, or New Jersey, or 

 Vermont, or Maryland. There has been no serious 

 complaint on account of the great area thus withdrawn 

 and reserved, but there has been complaint as to indis- 

 criminate early withdrawals of great tracts of land not 

 forest, but grazing lands. There has been complaint 

 also that grazing restrictions in the reserves were too 

 severe and that a much smaller number of live stock 

 was permitted to enter the reserves during the grazing 

 seasons than the parks and open spaces in the reserves 

 would carry without detriment. There has been com- 

 . plaint that the bureaucracy of the forest reserve admin- 

 istration caused unnecessary delay in the granting of 

 timber cutting permits and that many matters that 

 should be settled by local officers had to be referred 

 to Washington, thus causing much needless delay and 

 inconvenience to the ranchman and stockman. 



Some of their complaints have been given due con- 

 sideration and reforms inaugurated to remedy them. 

 The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in 

 charge of the administration work of the service, and 

 the Forester of the Department of Agriculture, in 

 charge of the scientific features of forestry, took cog- 

 nizance of the complaint that lands were included in 

 reserves regardless of their character and conjointly 

 conducted investigations and examinations to remedy 

 this evil. 



