46 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



FOREST RESERVES FOR THE PEOPLE. 



' 'A study of the forest reserves in their relations to the 

 general development and welfare of the country shows 

 that the segregations of these great bodies of reserved 

 lands can not be withdrawn from all occupation and use, 

 and that they must be made to perform their part in the 

 economy of the nation. According to a strict interpreta- 

 tion of the ruling of the Department of the Interior, no 

 one has a right to enter a forest reserve, to cut a single 

 tree from its forests, or to examine its rocks in search of 

 valuable minerals. Forty million acres of land are thus 

 theoretically shut out from all human occupation or en- 

 joyment. Such a condition of things should not continue, 

 for unless the reserved lands of the pubhc domain are 

 made to contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the 

 country they should be thrown open to settlement and 

 the whole system of reserved forests abandoned. Land 

 more valuable for its mineral deposit or for the production 

 of agricultural crops than for its timber should be taken 

 from the reservations and sold to miners and farmers, the 

 mature timber should be cut and sold, settlers within or 

 adjacent to the boundaries, unable to procure it in other 

 ways, should be authorized to take such material from 

 reserved forests as is necessary for their needs, and pros 

 pectors should be allowed to search them for minerals. 



"But it must not be forgotten that the public domain 

 of which these reserves form a part belongs to the people 

 of the whole country and not to those of any one section. 

 It is right, therefore, that the forest reserves should be 

 managed for the benefit of the people of the whole 

 country and not for any particular class or section. Steep 

 and elevated mountain slopes should not be cleared of 

 their forests for the sole benefit of' the prospector or the 

 miner, because this, by its influence on water flow, might 



