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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



public land and should be preserved as an example of the very- 

 best types of these forests that exist. It is important to preserve 

 this strip of wonderful forest in a national park, since there is 

 no other place where it can be done so appropriately. 



2. The area in question contains many fine meadows, already 

 used by campers, and will as time goes on be used more ex- 

 tensively by those desiring to reach the eastern portion of the 

 park. 



3. Many miles of the Tioga road, which is the key to the 

 wonderful scenic region in the eastern part of the park, lies in 

 the area proposed to be eliminated. The Government is now 

 taking steps to acquire this road and when repaired thousands 

 of persons will travel over it and must camp along the road on 

 the way. It is vital that these camp-grounds and streams and 

 forests should be kept in the park, as they are essential to its 

 proper enjoyment and administration. 



Forest Harmony. 



The harmony of sentiment between the cattle men and the 

 Forest service, as shown in yesterday's meeting, is distinctly 

 encouraging. Essentially the two interests are the same, but it 

 is not always that this fact has been so cordially realized. The 

 forests cannot long be used unless they are protected, and it 

 would not be practicable to protect them permanently unless they 

 were used. The old unregulated use of the forests was already 

 rapidly destroying itself, when it was stopped. The trees were 

 being burned up and over-grazing was reducing the pasturage to 

 nothingness. There was not enough for all, and nobody had any 

 very effective title to what he held, if someone else with a rifle 

 chose to dispute it. The use of the forest was destruction and 

 the law of the forest was anarchy. Such a situation could not 

 have lasted much longer, and it would not have helped the forest- 

 users if it had. They needed protection against themselves and 

 each other as much as the forest needed protection against them. 

 Then came the Forest Service to meet an emergency situation, and 

 it met it rather ruthlessly, at first, by emergency methods. There 

 was nothing else to do. The forest had to be preserved for future 

 use, even at the cost of interrupting its present use. It is easier 

 to stop things than to regulate them, and in the beginning some 

 things were stopped which the more fully organized service 

 later on found it possible again to permit. The era of total pro- 

 hibition could no more have been permanent than the preceding 

 era of unregulated abuse. The Forest Service must justify itself 



