18 
the duty of Forest officers to report to the Forester illegal holdings. 
The Forester, on the basis of reports made to him by Forest officers 
on unperfected claims in National Forests, recommends to the Com- 
missioner of the General Land Office the granting or withholding of 
patents to the claims. 
Asa result of investigation by Forest officers, claimants affected have 
voluntarily relinquished or abandoned illegal claims, and the lands have 
thus been restored to the National Forests and brought within the field 
of public use. 
The Service takes the utmost care to prevent injustice to mining 
claimants through reports by Forest officers. Where doubt exists as 
to a valuable discovery of mineral, the Forester directs special exami- 
nation of the claim by a ecologic detailed for the purpose by the 
United States Geological Survey. 
Claims are carefully considered and recommended for patent, except 
where careful investigation demonstrates them to be illegal or fraudu- 
lent. Persons actually occupying and using, in National Forests, 
land for a home or for purposes of business, where the conditions pre- - 
clude their acquiring title to the land, under any law, are permitted to 
continue their occupancy under a —— so long as fiey do not inter- 
fere with National Forest interests. 
In accordance with the policy of the Service to encourage and assist 
legitimate enterprises throughout the National Forests, special-use per- 
mits are issued for all lawful purposes not inconsistent with Forest 
interests. The section of special uses has charge of this work. To 
facilitate the transactions and more effectually meet local conditions 
and demands, the authority to issue such permits, with few excep- 
tions, is delegated to local forest supervisors. 
The commercial and industrial interests in the National Forests are 
now very great, and the enterprises conducted on National Forest 
lands under special-use permits represent practically all branches of 
activity. The following are the more usual purposes for which these 
permits are issued: Residences, farms, pastures, drift fences, corrals, 
apiaries, dairies, schools, churches, roads, trails, telephone and tele- 
graph lines, stores, mills, factories, lime and charcoal kilns, hotels, 
stage stations, sanitariums, camps, summer resorts, wharves, miners’ 
and prospectors’ cabins, windmills, dipping vats, tanks, dams, reser- 
voirs, water conduits of all kinds, power houses, power-transmission 
lines, aerial tramways and cable conveyors, railroads, tramroads, and 
the purchase of sand, stone, clay, gravel, hay, and other National 
Forest products, except timber. 
The charges made for permits are based upon the value that is actu- 
ally furnished to the permittees, including advantageous location and 
other indirect benefits, and not directly upon the profits or the magni- 
tude of the business which is to be carried on. | 
[Cir. 36] 
