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Origins of the National Forests

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Book

Pages: 334

Published: April 1992

Editor: Harold K. Steen

Contributors: Robert Hendricks, Harold K. Steen, William E. Shands, Peter Gillis, William Rowley, Stanley Dempsey, John F. Reiger, Kevin Palmer, Pamela A. Conners, Richard White, Michael McCarthy, Dennis L. Lynch, Donn E. Headley, Donald Pisani, James Muhn, Mary S. Culpin, Ron Arnold, and Gerald W. Williams

The national forests lay across America's diverse ecological and political geography, their 191 million acres ocuppying about 10 percent of the nation's land base. On the occasion of the centennial of the National Forest System, Origins of the National Forests examines the issues that have confronted the development, management, and use of the national forests since their inception in 1891.
The national forests are a major source of wood, water, minerals, forage, animal life and habitat, and wilderness. Yet questions of who controls and who benefits from the resources have posed problems and conflicts from the origins of the Forest Service to the present. Based on a 1991 Forest History Society conference, the essays collected here discuss a range of important topics surrounding our national forests, including the relationship between the federal and state systems that regulate the forests; the privately owned lands within the forests that are governed by federal statutes, state laws, and county ordinances; the ill-defined rights of those who lived on the land long before it was a national forest and were forced off the land; and the effect of early policymaking decisions made within the framework of the emerging Conservation Movement.

Contributors. Ron Arnold, Pamela A. Conners, Mary S. Culpin, Stanley Dempsey, Peter Gillis, Donn E. Headley, Robert L. Hendricks, Stephen Larrabee, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Dennis L. Lynch, Michael McCarthy, Char Miller, Joseph A. Miller, James Muhn, Kevin Palmer, Donald Pisani, John F. Reiger, William Rowley, Michael Ryan, William E. Shands, Harold K. Steen, Richard White, Gerald W. Williams

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Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Table Of Contents

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Foreword / Robert Hendricks vii

Introduction / Harold K. Steen xi

General Views of National Forests

The Origins and Significance of the National Forest System / Harold K. Steen 3

The Forest Reserves and the Argument for a Closing Frontier / Patricia Nelson Limerick 10

The Lands Nobody Wanted: The Legacy of the Eastern National Forests / William E. Shands 19

Canadian Federal Forest Reserves, 1883–1933: A Parallel Experiment / Peter Gillis 45

How Do We Write and Interpret the History of National Forests? / Joseph A. Miller 64

National Forest Resources

Graziers and Reclamations: The First Foresters? / William Rowley 79

Cautious Support: Relations Between The Mining Industry and the Forest Service, 1891–1991 / Stanley Dempsey 93

Wildlife, Conservation, and the First Forest Reserve / John F. Reiger 106

The Historic Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns / Michael Ryan 122

Vulcan's Footprints on the Forest: The Mining Industry and California's National Forests, 1850–1950 / Kevin Palmer 136

Influence of the Forest Service on Water Development Patterns in the West / Pamela A. Connors 154

Nonfederal Regulations

Indian Land Use and the National Forests / Richard White 173

The First Sagebrush Rebellion: Forest Reserves and States Rights in Colorado and the West, 1891–1907 / Michael McCarthy 180

Private Lands Within National Forests: Origins, Problems, and Opportunities / Dennis L. Lynch and Stephen Larrabee 198

The Cooperation Imperative: Relationships between Early Forest Administration and the Southern California Metropolis, 1892–1908 / Donn E. Headley 217

Other Federal Agencies

Forests and Reclamation, 1891–1911 / Donald Pisani 237

Early Administration of the Forest Reserve Act: Interior Department and General Land Office Policies, 1891–1897 / James Muhn 259

Yellowstone and Its Borders: A Significant Influence Toward the Creation of the First Forest Reserve / Mary S. Culpin 276

Individuals and National Forests

Wooden Politics: Bernhard Fernow and the Quest for a National Forest Policy, 1876–1898 / Char Miller 287

Congressman William Holman of Indiana: Unknown Founder of the National Forests / Ron Arnold 301

John B. Waldo and William G. Steel: Forest Reserve Advocates for the Cascade Range of Oregon / Gerald W. Williams 314

Author Affiliation 333

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-1272-7 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-1252-9 /

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