326 



Sierra Club Bulletin, 



Transfer of 

 Forest Reserves. 



The "Act providing for the transfer of forest 

 reserves from the Department of the Interior 

 to the Department of Agriculture" became a 



law February i, 1905, and contains the folloM^ing clauses: — 



" The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall, from 

 and after the passage of this act, execute or cause to be executed 

 all laws affecting public lands heretofore or hereafter reserved 

 under the provisions of section twenty-four of the act entitled 

 'An act to repeal the timber-culture laws and for other purposes/ 

 approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and acts 

 supplemental to and amendatory thereof, after such lands have 

 been so reserved, excepting such laws as affect the surveying, 

 prospecting, locating, appropriating, entering, relinquishing, re- 

 conveying, certifying, or patenting of any such lands." 



"All money received from the sale of any products or the 

 use of any land or resources of said forest reserves shall be cov- 

 ered into the treasury of the United States, and for a period of 

 five years from the passage of this act shall constitute a special 

 fund, available, until expended, as the Secretary of Agriculture 

 may direct, for the protection, administration, improvement, and 

 extension of Federal forest reserves." 



In a letter dated February i, 1905, from the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to the United States Forester, Gifford Pinchot, he 

 indicates the future policy regarding the administration of the 

 reserves. He says: — 



" It must be clearly borne in mind that all land is to be 

 devoted to its most productive use for the permanent good of the 

 whole people, and not for the temporary benefit of individuals 

 or companies. All the resources of the forest are for use, under 

 such restrictions only as will insure the permanence of these 

 resources. The permanence of the reserves is indispensable to 

 continued prosperity in the great industries of the Western 

 States, and the policy of this department for their protection and 

 use will invariably be guided by this fact, always bearing in mind 

 that the conservative use of these resources in no way conflicts 

 with their permanent value. You will see to it that the water, 

 wood, and forage of the reserves are conserved and wisely used 

 for the benefit of the home-builder first of all, upon whom depends 

 the best permanent use of lands and resources alike. The 

 continued prosperity of the agricultural, lumbering, mining, and 

 livestock interests is directly dependent upon a permanent and ac- 

 cessible supply of water, wood, and forage, as well as upon the 

 present and future use of these resources under business-like 

 regulations, enforced with promptness, effectiveness, and com- 

 mon-sense. In the management of each reserve local questions 

 will be decided upon local grounds ; the dominant industry will 

 be considered first, but with as little restriction to minor indus- 

 tries as may be possible, and where conflicting interests must 

 be reconciled the question will always be decided from the 

 standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long 

 run. These general principles can be successfully applied only 



