The American People and the National Forests: The First Century of the U.S. Forest Service

Chapter 1: A Century of Change

` 1 A CENTURY OF CHANGE I EMPHASIZE five major developments that occurred in the history of the Forest Service over its first century, from 1905 to 2005, each of which took place against the backdrop of the prior history of the forest reserves that began in 1891, when the first legislation leading to the Forest Service’s establishment was passed.These developments were the initial commitment to the forest reserves as publicly owned resources.That effort was soon followed by battles to ward off their privatization. From its earliest years, the agency commenced a long-term campaign to shape private forest management , a task that the federal agency effectively abandoned in the early 1950s and nominally and selectively shifted to the states.Later,citizens from outside the agency attempted to become involved in its affairs, which engendered varied responses from the agency itself.From the 1970s onward,the participation in forest affairs by diverse groups of scientists and professionals accompanied changes in the public context within which the agency carried out its objectives.Finally,the Forest Service has been steadily challenged to develop its management capabilities over the years as its tasks have become more elaborate and complex. 1 Hays CH1:Layout 1 12/14/08 1:29 PM Page 1 From Private to Public When Congress passed an omnibus public lands bill in 1891,the legislation contained a brief provision that authorized executive orders to establish forest reserves.This move was one of a number of decisions made by Congress and the president that modified traditional public land objectives. The traditional objective had been to shift control of timber lands to private individuals and corporations. With the new legislation, the focus shifted to retaining and managing forests as public assets. In earlier years, Congress had taken similar action only in special cases,when,for example,it excluded from sale areas that contained timber that was critical for naval shipbuilding. Later in the nineteenth century, however, Congress began to assert public interest in natural resources on a wider scale, establishing public lands for parks, wildlife refuges, and watershed protection, as well as for timber production . Congressional designations of public lands that became forest reserves were the most numerous of these federal actions to assert public interest in natural resources. The western forests were initially called “reserves ” with the notion that lands should be “reserved”from sale to private parties and retained as public assets to be managed by public agencies.In the East, a policy of acquisition as well as retention of forest land was adopted, leading over the years to the addition of almost 25 million acres to the national forests. The primary implication of this significant shift in public land policy was the belief that private owners could not be relied upon to accomplish a wide range of public objectives.If the nation wanted undeveloped park areas for the enjoyment of its citizens, it could not depend on private enterprise to retain the land’s natural qualities for that purpose. If the nation wanted abundant game and wildlife, which legally belonged to the public, it could not rely on private enterprise to provide either; the economic urge to sell wildlife in the market would be powerful. If the nation wanted to preserve archeological and historic sites,private enterprise could not be relied upon for the same reason.If the nation wished to guarantee future supplies of timber , the drive for short-term economic profit could not guarantee restoration 2 A CENTURY OF CHANGE Hays CH1:Layout 1 12/14/08 1:29 PM Page 2 of cut-over lands because this activity required a longer-term commitment of investment with lower returns than private enterprise could tolerate. Behind the creation of all such “reserves,”particularly the forest reserves created under the 1891 act,was the notion of public enterprise,which could be carried out by public ownership and management.By establishing these reserves, Congress made permanent public assets out of the public lands that had previously been heavily subject to privatization. The U.S. Forest Service was constituted to manage the most extensive of these public assets. The nation’s forests presented a distinctive example of the relationship between private and public ownership of land. Those who exploited the standing timber of the nation’s forests had migrated from New England to New York and Pennsylvania, then to the...