Before we examine the legislation specifi- 

 cally applicable to the Forest Service, it will 

 be helpful to consider the policy background 

 against which the National Forests were estab- 

 lished. 



Public Land 

 Management Policies 



The policies dominant during the greater 

 part of the 19th century suggest four overrid- 

 ing objectives in the use of public lands: 

 (1) to produce much-needed revenue for the 

 operations of* government; (2) insofar as pos- 

 sible, to promote the settlement and. growth 

 of new communities; (3) to reward veterans 

 of military actions by offering them the op- 

 portunity of ownership (or scrip entry priv- 

 ileges); and (4) to promote the internal devel- 

 opment of the nation through land grants de- 

 signed to aid in financing education, highway 

 construction, and charitable institutions. Each 

 of these four objectives had its special set of 

 supporters and spokesmen. As a result, the 

 measures adopted were often inharmonious 

 and incongruous (Gates 1968, p. 765 ff.). 6 



Three objectives developed subsequently. 

 During t he administration of Theodore 

 Roosevelt, a fifth policy direction evolved 

 that was to become significant in public land 

 administration. To many people the over- 

 whelming objective of American land policy 

 became "conservation." Many Americans 

 came to realize that the exploitation of their 

 rich inheritance of natural resources, if con- 

 tinued through the predatory practices char- 

 acteristic of the 19th century, would in the 

 near future diminish the unique value of that 

 inheritance. Many came to wonder whether 

 permanent public ownership of some lands 

 might not be superior to private ownership. 

 This concern, with its awareness of the deple- 

 tion of such resources as forests, ranges, wild- 

 life, clear streams, and beautiful landscapes 



6 Gates' History of Public Land Law Development, 

 a volume written for the Public Land Law Review 

 Commission, is an important source of information 

 on the factional and legislative struggles over public 

 land administration, and has been heavily drawn upon 

 in the discussion that follows. 



came to the foreground in the conservation 

 movement. Various groups, including the so- 

 called "preservationists" as well as the advo- 

 cates of scientific management, came together 

 to call for the permanent reservation of for- 

 ests and watersheds in the public domain. The 

 first National Park was established in 1872, 

 and in an act passed in 1891 (26 Stat. 1103), 

 the President was authorized to set aside "for- 

 est reserves" (subsequently renamed National 

 Forests). 



In the changing economic and social de- 

 mands of the late 19th and 20th centuries, a 

 sixth objective emerged — a policy of mul- 

 tiple-purpose development and use of the re- 

 maining store of public lands and associated 

 resources. As interpreted by one observer 

 (Gates 1968, p. 771-772), 



. . . instead of considering the economic value 

 of land in terms of its best use either as range- 

 land or for forests, for watershed protection, 

 recreation, preservation of wildlife, mining, in- 

 dustry or urban proliferation, the multiple 

 purpose objective takes all these factors into 

 consideration and upon that broad base, the 

 future use of any particular tract may be deter- 

 mined. 



The National Environmental Policy Act of 

 1969 (83 Stat. 852) adds a seventh dimension 

 to the national policy for public lands. As will 

 be seen in this study, the demand made in the 

 act for an ecological basis for management di- 

 rection alTcTdecisionmaking, together with the 

 trend of the evolutionary legislation preceding 

 it, is a basis for a clear specification of the 

 Forest Service mandate, and calls for agency 

 policies that will carry out the mandate. 



These general objectives, however, do not 

 estabTish a specific goal for the Forest Service. 

 First, they are not strictly goals at all; the pol- 

 icies described for the 19th century period 

 were in fact tools to achieve a real national 

 goal — namely, economic growth and develop- 

 ment. Second, the objectives described apply 

 to all public lands. For a more precise state- 

 ment of Forest Service goals, we must turn to 

 the enabling legislation. From a brief review 

 of the major statutes, and examination at 

 greater depth of a few of the more important 

 acts and their interpretation in the courts, we 

 will be able to define the Forest Service man- 

 date. 



11 



