Our National Forests Part 4

Figure 79. This is only one of the thousands of streams in the National Forests of the West capable of generating electric power. It has been estimated that over 40 per cent. of the water resources of the Western States are included in the National Forests. Photo by the author 232

Figure 80. View in the famous orange belt of San Bernardino County, California. These orchards depend absolutely upon irrigation. The watersheds from which the necessary water comes are in the National Forests and are protected by the Forest Service. Some of the smaller watersheds in these mountains are said to irrigate orchards valued at $10,000,000 232

OUR NATIONAL FORESTS

CHAPTER I

THE CREATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS WHICH LED TO FOREST CONSERVATION

In order that the reader may fully appreciate the gigantic task that has been accomplished in bringing the National Forest administration and organization to its present state of development, it is necessary to briefly sketch the conditions that led up to the inauguration of the Federal Forest Policy before we stop to consider that policy and the establishment and organization of National Forests.

_Prodigality Leads Finally to Conservation._ Every great movement, which has for its object the betterment of the lot of mankind, lags far behind the times. There must be an actual economic need before a new movement can be expected to take root and flourish. Forest conservation had no place in the household economy of nations that had forests in superabundance. Their forests were used with prodigality. It seems to be a great human failing to use natural resources lavishly when the supply is apparently unlimited, and to practice frugality only when the end of a resource is in sight. Thus we find in the pages of forestry history that all nations have begun to husband their forest resources only after having felt the pinch of want. In our country history repeats itself and our federal policy of forest conservation properly begins at the time that the national conscience was awakened to the realization that if we did not practice economy with our forest resources we would some day be without an adequate supply of timber and forage, and be confronted with other dangers and calamities that follow the destruction of forests.

_The March of Forest Destruction._ When the London Company settled at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 it found that unlimited pine and hardwood forests confronted it on every side. Nor did these early settlers ever find a way out of this forested wilderness except by clearings made with the ax. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod in 1620 they found similar forests stretching in all directions from their town-site. After the Atlantic seaboard became pretty well settled the home-builders began moving westward through New York, Pennsylvania, and what is now Ohio.

Still nothing but unbroken, virgin forests were encountered. Westward to the Mississippi civilization advanced and still forests reigned supreme.

Then the Middle West, the Rocky Mountain region, and finally the Pacific Coast regions were settled. During 140 years civilization has spread from coast to coast and of that vast wilderness of forest there is left only a remnant here and there. The giant pines that sheltered De Soto and his thousand followers on their ill-fated expedition in 1541 to the Mississippi River have long since disappeared. Along the Allegheny and Appalachian ranges the vast forests that once harbored the hostile Narragansetts and Iroquois are now but a memory. The giant oak, ash, and cypress forests of the Mississippi Valley are rapidly being decimated by the big sawmills that work night and day to outdo each other. In the north the dense and magnificent forests of white pine that greeted Father Marquette, when he planted his missionary station at Sault Ste.

Marie in 1668, have been laid low. Unproductive wastes, sandy barrens, and useless underbrush now greet the eye. In fact the pine forests which covered the greater part of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have been leveled by the woodman's ax. The army of lumbermen has moved now to the Coast to again turn virgin timberlands into unproductive wastes.

Thus forest destruction has followed civilization. Statistics show very vividly how gradually one large lumbering center after another has become exhausted, often leaving behind desolation and business depression. In these large centers thriving towns sprang up only to disappear again after the removal of the forest wealth. In 1850 about 55 per cent, of the annual cut of lumber came from the New England States; even as late as 1865 New York furnished more lumber than any State in the Union. By 1890 Michigan had reached the zenith of its production and in that year the Lake States furnished 36 per cent. of the lumber cut.

By 1909 the Southern States had increased their cut to over 50 per cent.

of the total of the country. In 1913 the cut of the State of Was.h.i.+ngton was the largest ever recorded for that State or for any other State, even outdoing Michigan during its Golden Age. In 1915 about 20 per cent.

of the cut came from the Coast but the South still furnished almost 50 per cent.

_Our Lumber and Water Supply Imperiled._ In our prodigal use of our forest resources we have become the most lavish users of wood in the world. While the annual consumption per capita for France is about 25 cubic feet, and that of Germany about 40 cubic feet, our per capita consumption is in the neighborhood of 250 cubic feet. And the most terrible thing about our reckless methods has been that we have wasted by crude lumbering methods and we have let great forest fires consume many times as much lumber as we have used. There have been vast public and private losses through unnecessary forest fires which not only consumed millions of dollars' worth of timber every year, but which also cost the lives of thousands of settlers. Then, as every one knows, by being grossly negligent with our forests, our rivers have visited their wrath upon the unfortunate people in the valleys. Many streams have become raging torrents in the spring and only chains of stagnant pools in the summer, thus destroying their value for water power and irrigation. Cotton mills, which formerly used water power all the year round, now must depend upon more expensive steam power generated by coal to keep their mills running in times of water shortage, while during high water there is the great danger that the entire factory might be swept away.

THE FIRST STEPS IN FEDERAL FOREST CONSERVATION.

Gradually the national conscience became awakened to the need of a more rational use of our forest resources. But it was not until after the Civil War that the first steps were taken. As was to be expected, the States in which forest destruction had reached its worst stages were the first to attempt to mend their ways, thus leading the way along which the Federal Government was soon to follow.

_The Upbuilding of the West._ The decade following the Civil War is marked by the construction of some of our great trans-continental railroads and the consequent development of the great western country.

In fact between 1865 and 1875 the railroad mileage of the United States doubled. The first trans-continental railroad, the Union Pacific, was completed in 1869. Others soon followed. To encourage construction and settlement vast tracts of land were granted to the railroad companies by the Government, and with the land much valuable timber pa.s.sed from government owners.h.i.+p. After the construction of the railroads towns and villages sprang up like mushrooms. As was to be expected with this increased development the destruction of our forests received an added impetus. The Lake States, then the center of the lumber industry, began to take alarm at the rapidity with which their hillsides were being denuded. Destructive lumbering, usually followed by devastating forest fires, was fast decimating the virgin pine forests. The young growth that had escaped the lumberman's ax fell a prey to forest fires which soon took the form of annual conflagrations. As the population increased the new sections of the country were settled, and as manufacturing operations were extended timber was getting higher in price.

_The Lake States First to Act._ The first attempt to remedy the situation was made by the State of Wisconsin. In 1867 the Wisconsin legislature suggested a committee who should report upon the destruction of Wisconsin's forests. The next year Michigan took a similar step and in 1869 the Maine legislature began to look into their waning supply by appointing a committee to estimate the standing timber of the State. As early as this observations and calculations upon the rate of consumption of lumber pointed to a not far distant wood famine.

_The First Federal Steps._ The first step taken by the federal authorities was at the urgent request of the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture in 1870. At that time lands were recognized as being either "improved" or "unimproved" farm lands. He recommended that the category of "unimproved farm lands" be subdivided into "woodlands"

and "other unimproved lands." By thus dividing off woodlands from other unimproved farm lands more attention was concentrated upon the former.

This attention was manifested in the investigations that followed shortly in which it was estimated that 39 per cent. of the area of the country was in woodland. This was the first and most logical step toward taking an inventory of our forest resources.

Another early attempt to a.s.sist in forest conservation was an attempt to reforest the treeless plains of our Western States. On March 3, 1873, the Timber Culture Act was pa.s.sed by Congress by which the planting to timber of 40 acres of land in the treeless territories conferred the t.i.tle to 160 acres of public domain. At first this act seemed to work out as intended but it did not take very many years before it proved a dismal failure. Settlers had no knowledge of planting trees; the restrictions of the act could not be enforced, and the act was open to other abuses. The act was finally repealed in 1891. Many similar laws for encouraging the planting of timber were pa.s.sed by the legislatures of some of the Middle Western States, but all met with little success.

In 1874 Nebraska inaugurated Arbor Day. By this act of the legislature the second Wednesday in April of each year was set aside for planting trees. Other States have followed the example of Nebraska, so that to-day almost every State provides one day in the year for planting trees. Thus Arbor Day has become practically a national inst.i.tution.

_The Act of August 16, 1876._ The first constructive piece of legislation enacted by the Congress of the United States was the Act of August 16, 1876. This was the first of a series of Acts pa.s.sed by Congress which, although occurring many years apart in some cases, put forest conservation upon a firm basis. Under the first act the Commissioner of Agriculture was directed:

"To appoint some man of approved attainments who is practically well acquainted with methods of statistical inquiry and who has evinced an intimate acquaintance with questions relating to the national wants in regard to timber, to prosecute investigations and inquiries with the view of ascertaining the annual amount of consumption, importation, and exportation of timber and other forest products; the probable supply for future wants; the means best adapted to their preservation and renewal; the influence of forests upon climate and the means that have been successfully applied in foreign countries, or that may be deemed applicable in this country for the preservation and restoration or planting of forests, and to report upon the same to the Commissioner of Agriculture, to be by him in a separate report transmitted to Congress."

Dr. Franklin B. Hough, an active, untiring, and intelligent scholar, was the first man to be appointed by this act. As Commissioner of Forestry he prepared the first report and submitted it to Congress. The next year, in 1877, Congress granted its first appropriation of $6,000, "for the purpose of obtaining other facts and information preparatory to establis.h.i.+ng a Division of Forestry."

_Further Work Under the Act._ The office of Commissioner of Forestry gradually enlarged the scope of its duties and functions. Five years later, due to the ever-increasing importance of the subject, a distinct division, the Division of Forestry, was established in the Department of Agriculture. The duties and powers of this Division were "to devote itself exclusively to such investigations of the subject as would tend to the fullest development of the resources of the country in that respect, to discover the best methods of managing and preserving our waning forests and to maintain in all its bearings the universal interest involved in that industry."

In 1881 an agent of the Department was sent to Europe to study the work of forestry there. In 1882 the American Forestry Congress was organized.

This organization had for its object the discussion and dissemination of the important facts of forestry, and while strictly a private body, had a considerable influence in later years in educating the people to the needs of forestry and in helping to establish a rational forest policy in the United States. Its first meeting took place in Cincinnati. At a second meeting held the same year in Montreal the name was changed to the American Forestry a.s.sociation and since then has been the center of all private efforts to advance the forestry movement. In 1898 this a.s.sociation began the publication of a propagandist journal which is now called _American Forestry_. In 1884 the duty of making experiments with timber was added to the functions of the Division. The next year the collecting and distribution of valuable economic tree seeds was begun.

In 1886 the study of the biology of some of our important timber trees was taken up, while in the following year silvicultural problems first engaged the attention of the Division.

THE FIRST FOREST RESERVES ESTABLISHED MARCH 30, 1891

_The Situation Before 1891._ Before 1891 the Division of Forestry was simply a bureau of information. In general the information supplied was of a twofold nature. It was technical in so far as it related to the management of private woodlands and statistical in so far as the knowledge of the conditions of our forest resources induced the application of forestry principles. Up to that date Congress had neither appropriated enough money for efficient outdoor work nor did she attempt to put any government woodlands under the control of the Division. Therefore there had been no management because there were no forests to manage. This one-sided development of the forestry work of the Division was greatly impeding a rational development of the forest conservation movement.

_The Need of a Forest Policy._ The need for a well-defined forest policy with respect to the government forest lands now began to be felt. Railroad land grants, the Homestead Act, Preemption claims, and the Timber and Stone Act were taking much valuable timberland out of government owners.h.i.+p. People secured claims under these acts merely for the timber that was on them. The purposes of the laws and acts of Congress were being fraudulently evaded. Also the Government had restrictive and protective laws in regard to its lands, but it could not enforce them on account of lack of appropriations with which to maintain an administrative and protective organization. The time was now ripe for an executive policy to manage the woodlands that still remained in the possession of the Government before it was too late to save what was left.

_The Act of March 3, 1891._ The Division of Forestry was designed by the nature of its duties to be more than a bureau of information.

The existence of a governmental department to promulgate forestry principles while the Government itself had made no provision to apply such principles to its own permanent timberlands was an incongruity that suggested further legislative action. This was in part supplied by the law of March 3, 1891, which conferred upon the President the power to establish Forest Reservations. The first exercise of power under this act was the presidential proclamation creating the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve under President Harrison on March 30, 1891. This was probably the wisest step yet taken in the development of a National Forest policy; but, unfortunately, the act left the Division simply a bureau of information as it was before.

AN ANOMALOUS CONDITION--FOREST RESERVES WITHOUT FOREST ADMINISTRATION

_The Need of Administration on the Reserves._ At first thought it will be seen that this piece of legislation must necessarily remain inoperative unless it were followed by the establishment of a proper administration of the Reserves based upon sound forestry principles.

Furthermore, the law withdrew from public use all such lands that might be acquired under it. It was now easy for the Government to acquire lands; the question that next presented itself was how to protect and regulate the use of these new acquisitions. Forest protection cannot be secured without forest rangers and forest guards; nor forest management without technical foresters. The very reasons for establis.h.i.+ng the Reserves would point to the absolute need of a system of managing them.

These reasons were briefly:

"to prevent annual conflagrations; to prevent useless destruction of life and property by fires, etc.; to provide benefit and revenue from the sale of forest products, fuels, and timbers; to administer this resource for future benefit; to increase the stock of game; to promote the development of the country; to give regular employment to a professional staff; to secure continuous supplies of wood and to get the maximum amount of good from each acre."

Such arguments as these a.s.sume the presence of a force of men to protect and administrate these Reserves.

_More Reserves Created._ In spite of this serious fault in the Act of March 3, 1891, more Forest Reservations were created. By 1894 Presidents Harrison and Cleveland had created about 17,500,000 acres and on a single day, February 22, 1897, President Cleveland proclaimed over 20,000,000 acres. By the close of 1897 a total of almost 40,000,000 acres of Forest Reserves had been established.

During the six years following the law giving the President power to establish Reserves, the Reserves were under the jurisdiction of the General Land Office. The appropriations of Congress were small, amounting to less than $30,000 annually. Such appropriations were used mainly for testing timber strength and the conditions affecting quality.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESERVES UNDER THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE

_The Act of June 4, 1897._ The Secretary of the Interior in 1896 requested the National Academy of Sciences, the legally const.i.tuted advisor of the Government in scientific matters, to investigate, report upon, and recommend a National Forest policy. This resulted in the Act of June 4, 1897, under which, with subsequent amendments, the National Forests are now being administered. Under this act the Reserves remained in the hands of the General Land Office, Department of the Interior. It charged this office with the administration and protection of the Forest Reservations. Later the Geological Survey was charged with surveying and mapping them, and the Division of Forestry was asked to give technical advice. It is very evident that the Division of Forestry containing all the trained scientific staff had no relation to the government forestry work except as the offices of the Department of the Interior might apply for a.s.sistance or advice. It is true that an important step had been taken, but the complete separation of the administration by the General Land Office and the force of trained men in the Division of Forestry was a serious defect.

The Act of June 4 might be called the Magna Charta of national forestry. The U. S. Geological Survey undertook the task of surveying, cla.s.sifying, and describing the Forest Reservations. At a cost of about one and one-half million dollars over 70,000,000 acres of Forest Reserves were mapped and described. The General Land Office undertook the administration and Forest Superintendents and Rangers were appointed to take charge of the Reservations. The rules and regulations for administering the Reserves were formulated by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

_The Division of Forestry in 1898._ On July 1, 1898, the Division of Forestry employed 11 persons, 6 clerical and 5 scientific. There were also some collaborators and student a.s.sistants. There was no field equipment and no field work. But in the fall of 1898 an important step was taken. From that time on the Division of Forestry offered practical a.s.sistance to forest owners and thus it s.h.i.+fted its field of activity from the desk to the woods. The lumbermen were met on their own grounds and actual forest management for purely commercial ends was undertaken by well known lumbermen. From that time dates the solution of specific problems of forest management and the development of efficient methods of attacking them. The work of the Division at this time, therefore, consisted of activities along 4 distinct lines: (1) that of working plans, (2) that of economic tree planting, (3) that of special investigations, and (4) that of office work. Thus it will be seen, even at this late date the Division had practically nothing to say about the scientific forestry methods which should be used on the Reservations.

_The Bureau of Forestry._ In 1901 the Division of Forestry was raised to the rank of a Bureau, but this was a change in name only and carried with it no change in the handling of the Government's vast forest resources.