18 FOEEST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 



date vacating all the withdrawals for forest reserves in northern 

 Shoshone County. I recall to your mind the fact that I stated that 

 these lands were mineral in character, and that they are in a humid 

 region ; that the creation of a forest reserve as suggested will greatly 

 retard the development of the mineral resources and the material 

 interests of that section. 



Yours, very truly, W. B. Heyburn. 



Mr. Pinchot to the President. 



Washington, June 7^, 190Jf. 



Dear Mr. President: I inclose herewith a general reply to Sen- 

 ator Heyburn \s communications concerning forest reserves in Idaho. 

 In addition I want to recall to your mind a conference between your- 

 self and Senator Heyburn, held at your office some time ago, at which 

 I was present. During the course of that conference an agreement 

 was reached between yourself and Senator Heyburn as to what 

 reserves should be created during the coming summer in Idaho, and 

 what areas held as withdrawals pending further discussion. Senator 

 Heyburn took the general position of approval of all reserves which 

 were to be created for protecting the water supply of irrigated dis- 

 tricts. In particular it was specifically agreed, and I recall very 

 clearly going over the agreement in detail in your presence with 

 Senator Heyburn to avoid any possible mistake, that the reserves of 

 southern Idaho, including the Henrys Fork, the Idaho addition to 

 the YelloAvstone, the Payette, and the Squaw Creek division of the 

 Weiser, and the Sawtooth, should be created at once, while the Seven 

 Devils division of the Weiser, in addition to the Bitter Root, the 

 Coeur d'Alene, and the Priest RiA^er addition should be held in their 

 present condition 2:>ending further discussion. In his letter of May 7, 

 Senator Heyburn throws this agreement completely over without 

 even referring to it, and asks for the immediate restoration to the 

 public domain of all the reserves but two. 



There is no need to discuss whether or not the President has the 

 right to create forest reserves in mineral regions further than to say 

 that he has done so continually from the beginning of the forest- 

 reserve policy, and that the Interior Department has distinctly held 

 in favor of liis right so to do. The question whether any land is 

 more valuable for the mineral therein or for agricultural purposes 

 than for forest purposes is distinctly one to be determined by the 

 Executive, and the mere fact that land is mineral in character has 

 no bearing whatever upon the comparison of values Avhich the law 

 directs the Executive to make. 



The mineral interests of Idaho are obviously passing through and 

 out of the condition of opposition to forest reserves, which has been 

 held and abandoned by the people of other great mining regions in 

 the United States. There is every reason to believe, and there are 

 strong actual indications, that the miners of Idaho will rapidly 

 abandon their present untenable position for precisely the same 

 reasons which have led to the abandonment of the same position 

 elsewhere. 



Very sincerely, yours, 



GiFFORD Pinchot, 



Forester. 



