6 GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK. 



Congress, therefore, in 1891, authorized the Presi- 

 dent to set aside forest reserves, as National Forests 

 were for some years called, in order to protect the 

 remaining timber on the public domain from destruc- 

 tion and to insure a regular flow of water in the 

 streams. The first forest reserve — the " Yellowstone 

 Park Timberland Reserve " — was created by Presi- 

 dent Harrison that same year, and later Presidents 

 have created others, until at present there are 149 

 National Forests with a total net area of over 156,- 

 000,000 acres. Within the Forest boundaries are also 

 some 24,000.000 acres in private ownership, consist- 

 ing of lands granted or taken up for one purpose or 

 another before the Forests were created, or of Forest 

 homesteads and mining claims patented since. 



The law of 1891 provided that National Forests may 

 be set aside from public lands covered wholly or in 

 part with timber or undergrowth. Later laws have 

 prohibited the enlargement of the forests or the crea- 

 tion of new forests in the States of Colorado. Wyom- 

 ing, Montana. Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Cali- 

 fornia through additions from the public lands, ex- 

 cept by act of Congress. Some National Forests are 

 heavily timbered, and are mainly for timber produc- 

 tion ; others are located in thinly wooded regions 

 primarily to protect and conserve the water supply, 

 without which the country would be uninhabitable. 



The original act made no provision for administer- 

 ing the reserves, and the withdrawal of land involved 

 from all forms of settlement met with vigorous dis- 

 approval, especially in the West where the reserves 

 were situated. These defects, however, were largely 

 removed by Congress on June 4, 1897, in a law outlin- 

 ing a system of organization and management for the 

 reserves and placing their administration under the 



