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Show 762 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT production of minerals is specifically named as one such use. Regulations have been published. Although classification may have the effect of segregating land from mining, the regulations provide that this is not to occur "unless the nonmineral uses would be inconsistent with and of greater importance to the public interest than continued search for a deposit of valuable minerals." The Public Land Law Review Commission is currently charged with the responsibility of making concrete recommendations to the Congress on the extent to »which public lands should be retained and managed by the Federal government or disposed of in a way which will provide maximum advantages to the general public.437 Similar commissions existed in 1879 and 1903.438 It is expected that the present Commission will make some lasting recommendations. The conflict between public and private interests in the Federal public lands creates problems of enormous scope.439 The New Conservation For the Progressives of the Theodore Roosevelt era, mineral conservation quite understandably meant saving for a future generation, with little attention paid to current wasteful and uneconomic practices. The second and third decades of this century witnessed the effects of an under-regulated industry exploiting oil and gas resources in a manner unparalleled in the «778 Stat. 982 (1964), 43 U.S.C. § 1391 (1964). See generally Phipps, The Public Land Law Review Commission-Identifying and Defining the Problems, 2 Land and Water L. Rev. 251 (1967) . 438 Report of the Public Lands Commission, Exec. Doc. No. 46, 46th Cong., 2d Sess. (1880) ; Sen. Doc. No. 188, 58th Cong., 2d Sess. (1904) and Sen. Doc. No. 154, 58th Cong., 3d Sess. (1905) . 139 For a detailed study, see Bennett, Public Land Policy: Reconciliation of Public Use and Private Development, 11 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 311 (1966). history of public land law. This was true despite the "closing" of the reserves between 1910 and 1920. The same situation prevailed in private production of oil and gas. Alarmed at wasteful practices, depletion and over-production, President Cool-idge set up the Federal Oil Conservation Board in 1924 to work with the industry on conservation. Unimpressed with the accomplishments of the board (as a member, he was aware of its shortcomings), President Hoover, it will be remembered, announced a policy of complete conservation of public oil and gas during his administration. His program for government-industry cooperation was quite successful, and production was considerably decreased.440 Compared with the history of mineral conservation, the national forests have long been the subject of careful conservation techniques by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. Due perhaps in part to favorable congressional appropriations, the Forest Service's record has been impressive. With the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934, the government began to take a close look at another of the natural resources of the West, the grazing lands, a resource which Theodore Roosevelt had wanted to classify as a "public utility" as early as 1905. In 1934, the condition of the grazing lands was a national scandal. Under the new act, the Department of the Interior was able to inaugurate what might be termed "the period of aggressive management." The Department had had an impossible assignment for nearly a century. Grossly understaffed, it was totally unable to handle the congressional profligacy of the 19th century. And, although Secretary Garfield's tenure during the Roosevelt administration was eminently successful, this was closely followed by the famous Bal-linger-Pinchot controversy in which the Department was perhaps most unfairly dealt 44I) Swain, Federal Conservation Policy 1921-1933, 76 U. of Cal. Pub. in History 53-72 (1963). |