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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



stock it will readily support, and to supervise the permits issued 

 by the General Land Office to such as apply for pasturage. They 

 also sell a small amount of timber, generally of an inferior class. 

 Practically, this covers the required duties, aside from clerical 

 and administrative ones, in the forest-reserve service; and it 

 falls short of forestry because there are no men in the service 

 sufficiently well trained to undertake the real problems of forestry 

 on the large scale the reservations demand. 



In view of the fact that attempted legislation providing for the 

 transfer of the reserves to the Bureau of Forestry again failed 

 in the late Congress, it is important for us to know the method 

 and results of the present management of the public forests. Is 

 it reasonably safe from unexpected disasters or from defective 

 methods that will bring the forest reserves into disrepute before 

 a transfer to trained hands can be secured. 



According to the theory of the present management, protection 

 from fire and from injurious pasturage are by far the most im- 

 portant duties of the service. Regarding pasturage, the facts are 

 as follows: On July 5, 1900, the Department of the Interior is- 

 sued an amendment to its "Rules and Regulations Governing 

 Forest Reserves," prohibiting the pasturage of sheep and goats 

 on the public lands in the forest reservations, except in Oregon 

 and Washington, in situations where continuous moisture and 

 abundant rainfalls would allow the grazing of sheep. It also pro- 

 vided for the limited pasturage of sheep and goats in a reserve 

 in any State or Territory where, in the judgment of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, it will not work injury to the reserve or 

 the interests dependent thereon. "The pasturing of livestock 

 other than sheep and goats, will not be prohibited in the forest 

 reserves so long as it appears that injury is not being done the 

 forest growth and water supply and the rights of others are not 

 thereby jeopardized." Subsequent amendments stated that "stock 

 of all kinds will receive preference in the following order, viz. : 

 I. Stock of residents within the reserve ; 2. Stock of persons who 

 own permanent stock ranches within the reserve, but who reside 

 outside; 3. Stock of persons living in the immediate vicinity 

 of the reserve, called neighboring stock; 4. Stock of outsiders 

 who have some equitable claim." Grazing is free, and from these 

 permits the United States derives no revenue. Nineteen hundred 

 and one was the first year of pasturage on the reserves under the 

 permit sj'-stem. In 1901 and 1902 sheep and goats were allowed 

 to enter eight reserves only, one each in New Mexico, Utah, 

 Oregon, and Wyoming, two in Arizona, and two in Washington, 

 aggregating 16,800,000 acres. In 1901 the number allowed on 

 eight reservations was 1,400,000; the number entering, 1,214,418. 

 In 1902 the number allowed, 1,197,000; the number entering, 



