40 SUKVEYS OF FOREST EESERVES. 



THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS. 



The National Irrigation Congress held at Lincoln, I^febr., September 

 30, 1897, passed unanimously a resolution advocating the withdrawal 

 from sale or entry of all lands now in possession of the Government 

 which are of more value for their timber than for agriculture or for 

 minerals. This representative body of Western men has expressed a 

 conclusion in which I fully concur. No good reason can be given for 

 the maintenance of the present reserves which does not also demand 

 the withdrawal and protection of all similar lands now held by the 

 Grovernment. The present regulations, with the addition of the pro- 

 vision regarding agricultural lands already mentioned, would have the 

 effect to open all the resources of these lands to the fullest develop- 

 Uient, and no good reason remains why the reservation policy should 

 not be extended to them also. 



The conclusion embodied in the resolution of the irrigation congress 

 was emphatically reiterated on December 8, 1897, by the American 

 Forestry Association. It was strongly expressed by a committee of 

 the National Academy of Sciences; and it appears to be supported 

 with significant unanimity by the men most familiar with the Western 

 forests, and most interested in their preservation. The progress of 

 settlement has left in the ownership of the Government little Western 

 forest land that is not mountain land as well. The welfare of the great 

 agricultural and mineral regions in the West are known to be indis- 

 solubly connected with the safety of these forests. The protection of 

 the mountain forests from Are is of the first and most immediate im- 

 portance. Already certain mining sections are beginning to suffer 

 from lack of timber as the direct result of forest fires, and the develop- 

 ment of new mining centers will be seriously hampered, or even, in the 

 case of low grade ores, be rendered impossible by the lack of accessible 

 timber. The Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, although partly in- 

 cluded in a reserve, will furnish a typical illustration. This region is 

 believed by residents to contain mineral deposits of great value. These 

 deposits must be developed by the aid of local timber, or not at all, on 

 account of the steepness and isolation of the range and the dififtculties 

 of transportation. During the past summer fires burned over about 

 70,000 acres, an area capable of yielding at one time, with entire safety 

 to the forest, an amount of timber suflBcient to meet local needs, at the 

 present rate of consumption, lor more than seventy years. 



A powerful reason for assimilating all the Western public forests to 

 the reserves is found in the fact that no adequate provision exists by 

 which their timber can be made available for local needs. Means to this 

 end have been provided for the reserves, and it is believed that the 

 extension of these means to the unreserved forest lands would be wel- 

 comed throughout the West. Whether the withdrawal of the unre- 

 served forest lands could best be achieved by Congressional action, or 

 through proclamation by the President, is an open question. lu the 

 latter case it might be necessary to reach the end in view by the con- 

 stitution of a number of new reserves, with boundaries subject to sub- 

 sequent revision, and any inclosed agricultural land open to entry as 

 heretofore described. Action in either direction should be preceded 

 and accompanied by the widest possible dittusion of the regulations 

 governing the reserves. 



