United States Department of Agriculture, 



FOREST SERVICE— Circular No. 36 (Second Edition). 



GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. 



THE FOREST SERYICE: WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT HEALS 

 WITH FOREST PROBLEMS. 



"Forest Service" has been the name since July 1, 1905, of that 

 branch of the Department of Agriculture which was previously 

 called the "Bureau of Forestry^" and, earlier still, the "Division of 

 Forestry." 



Since February 1, 1905, the Forest Service has been charged, under 

 the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, with the administration 

 of the National forest reserves. About the management of the 

 reserves, therefore, the work of the Service now centers. The reserves 

 whose area on July 18, 1906, was 107,305,707 acres, are of vital impor- 

 tance for their timber and grass and for the conservation of stream 

 flow. They are so managed as to develop their permanent value as a 

 resource by use. Earlier opposition toward them, based on the belief 

 that preservation would prevent use, has changed with the under- 

 standing of their real object to approval and support. The last valid 

 objections to their establishment and maintenance have been removed 

 b}^ the Agricultural Settlement law of June 11, 1906, and by a clause 

 in the agricultural appropriation bill for the year 1906-7. By the first, 

 agricultural land in forest reserves, if classified as chiefly valuable for 

 agriculture, listed in the local land office, and opened by the Secretary 

 of the Interior, may be taken up by home builders. Man}^ small tracts 

 of agricultural lands, scattered here and there along creeks and valleys, 

 have unavoidably been included in reserve boundaries, though the 

 utmost care secured the elimination of all large bodies of such land 

 when the boundaries were drawn. The need of such a law as that of 

 June 11 was clearly seen, and its passage was secured. 



The so-called " ten per cent clause" of the agricultural appropria- 

 tion bill provides that States having reserves are to receive ten per 

 cent of the gross receipts from the reserves within their boundaries, 

 to be distributed among the counties in which the reserves lie and 

 devoted to public schools and roads. Many counties have much of 

 their area, in some cases more than half, in reserves, and this land is 



(7) 



