Forestry Notes. 



335 



Concessions in the 

 National Forests. 



It is now nearly ten years since the Sierra 

 Club Bulletin urged the reservation of 

 all the public domain in California that in- 



cluded the sources of our streams useful for water supply. This 

 was done in the interest of small land-holders and of municipalities 

 as against the anticipated investments of great syndicates. The 

 United States Forester approved this plan, and, fortunately, 

 although not quite soon enough, through him and President 

 Roosevelt, National forests have been created over most of the 

 desired area. The efforts of the aforesaid moneyed interests to 

 secure concessions of the natural resources in these forested 

 mountain regions appears at the present time to be greatest on 

 the part of the electric-power companies. The Sierra Club has 

 desired the great natural resources in the mountains of California 

 to remain permanently under Federal control, that the expected 

 use of them might be restricted to proper limits and always de- 

 voted to the greatest benefit to the greatest number, a condition 

 apparently impossible when they have passed to private control. 

 The Club's interest in forest preservation and the natural features 

 and resources of the mountains has been broader naturally than 

 that of the technical forester. The attitude of the Government, 

 therefore, in regard to the privileges sought for in the National 

 forests by these powerful corporations is one of the greatest 

 interest. President Roosevelt in a short speech quoted in many 

 publications, but to be found in "Forestry and Irrigation" (Vol. 

 14, p. 354), went to the heart of this matter. The keynote of his 

 remarks is found in the following: — 



" My position has been simply that where a privilege which may 

 be of untold value in the future to the private individuals granted 

 it is asked for from the Federal Government, the Federal Gov- 

 ernment shall put on the grant a condition that it shall not be a 

 grant in perpetuity." 



This speech was made at the Governors' Conference, May 

 13th to 15th. The idea of calling this conference to consider the 

 conservation of our natural resources originated, the President 

 says, with Gifford Pinchot. Where, since the Civil War, can we 

 find from a Government official a more statesman-like suggestion? 



regulating and restraining, under certain circumstances, the cut- 

 ting of trees on private lands. We have always regarded this — a 

 common practice in Europe — as a desirable thing in America 

 and only a logical consequence of the act of Congress under 



Shall the State 

 Regulate 

 Deforestation ? 



In Mr. Pinchot's first conference with the 

 redwood lumbermen of California — in 1899 

 we believe — one of the millmen expressed 

 a regret that there was no law in California 



