of about 20 acres can be located almost any- 

 where on the public lands, the only specific 

 exception being the designated National 

 Parks. Having filed a claim with the county 

 clerk, for which he is obliged only to prove 

 the existence of a trace of valuable minerals, 

 the claim owner virtually ties the hands of the 

 Forest Service or Bureau of Land Manage- 

 ment. On such claims, the agencies have 

 almost no power to prevent destructive activi- 

 ties. The claim owner has the right to build 

 roads, cut trees, dig massive holes, build an 

 airport, or even build and maintain a winter 

 sports complex, as long as he maintains the 

 legal basis of the "mine." In Utah alone there 

 are some 70,129 valid claims on Forest Serv- 

 ice lands. Although only some 12,062 of 

 these have had the necessary assessment work 

 performed to maintain title, the other 58,067 

 represent a large amount of land that cannot 

 be managed as it ought to be. 45 For the most 

 part these lands, along with the activities as- 

 sociated with them, are outside the manage- 

 ment scope of the agency. 



The conditions attached to lands leased 

 under the 1920 Law provide more direct con- 

 trol, but management powers are limited by 

 practical considerations. The Multiple Use 

 Mining Law of 19 5 5 46 (the title is mislead- 

 ing) does not go beyond the statement that 

 the United States has the right to manage the 

 surface vegetative resources on nonpatented 

 mining claims in the National Forest. 



A Comment on Legislation to 1960 



Some general conclusions may be drawn 

 from the preceding review. First, there is no 

 apparent ranking of resource uses on the Na- 

 tional Forest. The original provisions of the 

 1897 statute have in no way been altered or 

 substantially modified by any congressional 

 action taken to this point in the analysis. As 



Editorial, "Interior Secretary Morton proposes 

 needed revision of old mining law," Ogden Standard 

 Examiner, November 28, 1971, p. 4A. See also 

 O'Callaghan (1967), p. 249. 



46 69 Stat. 369. A compendium of the laws per- 

 taining to mining and other subsurface uses of the 

 National Forests can be found in USDA Forest Serv- 

 ice (1964), p. 26-40. For a readable treatment of this 

 difficult subject area, see Swenson (1968). 



indicated in the discussion, priorities were ex- 

 tremely flexible: here timber was viewed as 

 primary, there water, and still elsewhere recre- 

 ation, wildlife, or forage. For the most part, 

 any activities, including the three mentioned 

 in the 1897 Act, were subject to one major 

 provision; they were not to be allowed if they 

 directly or indirectly altered the productivity 

 of the forest land so as to affect substantially 

 the prospects of fulfilling the original intent 

 of the forest reservation. Further, all the legis- 

 lation to 1960 points to concern for the 

 permanence of the forest resources. Some 

 writers have claimed that the legislation sub- 

 ordinates all other resources or activities to 

 timber and water, but this study maintains 

 that such a conclusion is not warranted. The 

 courts and legislation from 1960 on have con- 

 sistently made clear that all uses of the forest 

 were to be allowed. It must be recognized 

 that in the earlier period of Forest Service 

 management, special concern was shown for 

 timber management and production. Against 

 this background, the intent of Congress in 

 passing the legislation of the 1960's can be 

 more clearly discerned. 



The Multiple Use - 

 Sustained Yield Act 

 IMU-SY] 



On June 12, 1960, the Multiple Use- 

 Sustained Yield Act (MU-SY Act) 47 was 

 passed and proclaimed by its proponents as a 

 major victory for scientific forest manage- 

 ment. For the first time since the original 

 enabling legislation of 1897 (which continued 

 to provide the primary body of law guiding 

 and directing the activities of the Forest Serv- 

 ice) Congress listed in a single statute all of 

 the renewable surface resources understood to 

 come under the management of the Service. 

 The unusually brief act specifies in part, 



It is the policy of the Congress that the~\ 

 National Forests are established and shall 

 be administered for outdoor recreation, 

 range, timber, watershed, and wildlife 

 and fish purposes. The purposes of this 

 Act are declared to be supplemental to, 

 but not in derogation of, the purposes 



47 74 Stat. 215; 16 U.S.C. 528-531. 



28 



