Congress, torn between a militant and well-organized sentiment in the East in favor of forest reservation and scientific forestry management and an irate West fighting against withdrawal and forest protection, was divided on the issue in the wake of the National Forest Commission report. These conflicting views were reflected in the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act (sometimes referred to as the Forest Management Act) of June 4, 1897, The law reaffirmed the power of the president to create reserves and confirmed all reservations created prior to 1897. However, it limited the type of lands to be reserved in the future, stating:
No public forest reservation shall be established, except to improve and protect the forest within the reservation, or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States; but it is not the purpose or intent of these provisions, or of the Act providing for such reservations, to authorize the inclusion therein of lands more valuable for the mineral therein, or for agricultural purposes, than for forest purposes.
The law granted the basic authority necessary for the federal government to regulate the occupancy and use of the forest reserves and guarantee their protection:
The Secretary of the Interior shall make provisions for the protection against destruction by fire and depredations upon the public forests and forest reservations which may have been set aside or which may be hereafter set aside under the said Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and which may be continued; and he may make such rules and regulations and establish such service as will insure the objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction; and any violation of the provisions of this Act or such rules and regulations, shall be punished as is provided for in the Act of June fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, amending section fifty-three hundred and eight-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States. [25]
In accordance with the provisions of the law Binger Hermann, who had been appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, prepared rules and regulations for the administration and protection of the forest reserves. These regulations (a copy of which may be seen in Appendix C) were approved by Secretary of the Interior Cornelius N. Bliss on June 30, 1897. Later on March 21, 1898, the rules and regulations were amended (a copy of the amendments may also be seen in Appendix C). [26]
In 1897 Secretary Bliss commented on the effect of the regulations as well as the difficulties encountered in the initial efforts of the department to enforce them. Among other things he observed:
