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Show ADMINISTRATION OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS 567 to the act providing for the establishment of what became Sequoia National Park stated: "the rapid destruction of timber and ornamental trees in various parts of the United States, some of which are the wonders of the world on account of their size and the limited number growing, makes it a matter of importance that at least some of said forests should be preserved." Out of this legislation developed three national parks, Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant, later a part of Kings Canyon. One other park was created in the 19th century, Mount Rainier in Washington.6 Present Acreage of National Parks Reserved or Created Before 1900 Hot Springs____________________ 989 Yellowstone____________________ 2,213,206 Yosemite_______________________ 758,313 Kings Canyon__________________ 453,768 Sequoia________________________ 385,413 Mount Rainier__________________ 241,781 From National Park Service, Parks for America (1964). For a country whose policy from the outset had been to pass the public lands into private ownership as speedily as possible, this series of acts to preserve areas of considerable size in public ownership was a remarkable change in attitude. Together with the adoption of the Forest Reservation Act they mark a turning point in public land policy. Selection of the forest lands to be withdrawn in the absence of any very informed knowledge or experts to make recommendations was a hit or miss proposition at first tain national park surrounding a badly managed state park in the Valley." In 1905 the state park was receded to the United States and consolidated the following year into the Yosemite National Park. 8 Ise, Our National Park Policy, pp. 121-22. S. A. D. Puter and Horace Stevens, Looters of the Public Domain (Portland, 1908). and left many problems to be solved in the future, when trained and skillful personnel became available to examine the reserves carefully and to advise modifications, eliminations, and additions. Some of the early reserves were but lightly forested. They were requested by towns and cities whose water supply came from mountain reservoirs that were being silted up because their watersheds were grazed too closely. Benjamin Harrison took prompt action under the Forest Reservation Act, issuing his first proclamation for the withdrawal of 1,239,040 acres north and east of the Yellowstone National Park for the Yellowstone National Park Timberland Reserve in less than a month after signing the measure.7 There followed in the remaining years of the Harrison administration 14 additional proclamations creating the White River, South Platte, Battlement Mesa, Plum Creek, and Pike's Peak Reserves in Colorado, the Pecos River Reserve in New Mexico, the Bull Run Reserve in Oregon, the San Gabriel, the Sierra Forest, the San Bernardino, and the Trabuco Canyon Reserves in California and the Grand Canyon Reserve in Arizona, containing together an estimated 13,053,440 acres.8 S. W. Lamoreaux, Cleveland's new Land Commissioner, maintained in 1893 that the reserves had generally been established to protect the watersheds of rivers, that the reservations were favored by the people directly affected and that much of the opposition to them would disappear when plans were worked out to permit people to use the timber. He also stressed the need for protection against fires and trespass, and regretted that no funds had been appropriated for this purpose. Cleveland pro- 7 The original proclamation was amended by a second proclamation of Sept. 10, 1891, 26 Stat. 1565 and 27 Stat. 989. 8 The proclamations are in 26 and 27 Stat., and the estimated acreage is summarized in GLO Annual Report, 1893, p. 78. |