Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

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  • 3(5 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. of science, by practical lumbermen, by the forestry associations, by many of the business organizations of the country, and by both the technical and the general press. I earnestly hope that it will meet with favorable action at the hands of Congress during its present session. National forest Congress has wisely provided for the setting aside out reserves in the ° . *• - . . , , . , . west. of the public domain, and thus withdrawing from sale, many thousands of square miles of valuable forest lands, with a view to protecting the streams and perpetuating the timber supply about the mountains in our western States and Territories. (See PI. II.) And while the measure now proposed involves a purchase instead of a withdrawal from sale of forest lands formerly purchased, the principle and purpose are the same. In both cases, even if judged simply as a question of finance, the Government's investment will ultimately prove a good one. mendecf "oTa As further illustrating the fact that the proposed pur- Gove?nment.thecnase wi^ not ^e a new policy or precedent on the part of the Government, attention may be called to the numerous purchases of lands for military parks, and to the purchase from the Blackfoot Indians in 1896 of more than half a million acres of forest lands at a cost of $1,500,000, which area was subsequently added to the Flathead Forest Reserve in Montana. moreeimportInt As 1 stated in my preliminary report of January last, thentwoPanot an-tne early movement for the purchase and control of a large tagonistic. ,u.ea of fore8t land in the Eagt by the (joveriirjient chiefly contemplated a national park, but the idea of a national park is conservation, not use; that of a forest reserve is conservation by use, and 1 therefore recommend the establishment of a forest reserve instead of a park. If, however, the present proposal for the establishment of a national forest reserve is favorably acted upon by Congress, and at some future time it should prove desirable that some considerable portion of this region be set aside and opened up more especially for use as a national park, 1 can see in advance no objection whatever to the carrying out of such a plan. CONDITIONS OF PURCHASE AND MANAGEMENT. mSunteinVrest * Stated in tne preliminary report just referred to that lands. lands in this region suitable for a forest reserve are now generally held in large bodies of from 50,000 to 100,000 acres, and that they can be purchased at prices ranging
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).