76 FOEEST EESERYES IK IDAHO. 



This is the man who skins the country and moves on. Othe^^Yise he 

 would not relinquish his claim, as he admittedly does at the first fa- 

 vorable opportunity, to those Avho are seeking- investments in timber 

 lands. To the real homesteader who tills the soil and builds a 

 house to live in nothing should be grudged. He is there to stay. 

 To the fraudulent homesteader who builds a shelter for the night 

 under tall timber no encouragement is due. He takes all he can get 

 ancl moves on. Sympathy for such a man is sympathy for one who 

 is engaged in fraudulent transactions: if sincere it is wasted, and it 

 IS hard to see how it can l)e sincere on the part of one who takes the 

 trouble to find out the facts. 



As an argument for the establishment of forest reserves in northern 

 Idaho it has never been claimed that the forests there were important 

 as a means of regulating the water flow. That part of the State is 

 abundantly watered and is not concerned with questions of irrigation. 

 It is merely a matter of bringing the Government timber lands under 

 a wise and j^ractical system of protection with a view to providing a 

 permanent supply of timber, first, for present needs, and. second, for 

 future use. The immense damage already done by forest fires in this 

 l^articular region is well known. Tender forest-reserve management 

 the timber is protected against fire, and simple regulations are made 

 for lumbering, in order that the future productiveness of the forest 

 lands may be assured, (rreat as the mining interests of northern 

 Idaho are now. they are in-ignificant compared to what they will be 

 in years to come. Timber iieLir at hand is absolutely essential to the 

 permanent prosperity of this industry, and one of the chief objects of 

 forest reserves in northern Idaho is to make sure of the forest re- 

 sources for present and future use. We wish to prevent the theft of 

 timber and the wanton and reckle-s destruction of timber: and we do 

 this in the interest of the public, of the public as it is to-day, and of 

 the public as it will be in the future. 



In your own interview, published by the Wallace Press and copied 

 by the Lewiston Journal, yoti say that it is your purpose to prevent 

 the withdrawal of any portion of the lands of Idaho that are adapted 

 to settlement and home-making purposes. If this is your only pur- 

 pose you can spare yourself all anxiety, for the policy described is 

 precisely the Government's policy in it> temporary withdrawals for 

 forest reserves. These withdrawal> are ba>ed on detailed maps pre- 

 pared after careful examination in the field. The character of each 

 section is shown and the fieldwork is done by men who are from 

 training and experience thoroughly familiar with western condi- 

 tions. The peculiar difficulties of this v\-ork have been fully appre- 

 ciated, and in my judgment your belief that theory and inexperience 

 have entered into the matter is a wholly mistaken one. I had you in 

 conference with the men — men born or raised in the West, by the 

 Avay — who have advised these withdrawals, and it was evident that 

 they knew thoroughly and completely the conditions: and that the 

 theory upon which you. yourself, were acting Avas an entirely mis- 

 taken one. Let me again repeat Avith all emphasis that only those 

 lands Avhich are shown by the Forest Service to be more valuable for 

 the production of timber or the protection of the Avater Aoav than for 

 agricultural purposes Avill be inchided in permanent forest reserves: 

 and that if it is afterwards proA'en that any lands within a foi'est 



