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:
These rules and regulations have been widely distributed, with a view to a better understanding of the subject by the public, and their publication has been secured by the agents of this Office in many of the newspapers of the West as a matter of news .
More general interest is taken in the subject of forest preservation and reservation, and as it is the more inquired into by the people directly affected, the advocates of an efficient forest administration increase in number.
The promulgation of the law and the rules and regulations has, in itself, had a tendency to create greater interest in the matter and to cause the public to observe more closely the regulations and the penalties for the violation thereof.
Since the 1st of July, 1897, under the meager appropriation at the disposal of the Department for the purpose, but six special forest agents and supervisors have been appointed for the purpose of patrolling the forest reserves and enforcing the observance of the regulations. It is needless to say that this force is infinitesimal, considering the magnitude of the work and the territory to be covered. As a region requiring more immediate attention, they were assigned to the reserves in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico. it is too early to speak particularly of the work performed by them, but I am justified in saying that their presence in the reservations has already been felt beneficially by a more general observance of the regulations and by the suppression of what might have proved to be very destructive forest fires.
The duties of these forest agents are many, and it goes without saying that the force will have to be very materially increased to fulfill the requirements of the forest-reserve law. It is in the interest of economy and a wise policy to increase the force to make it effective. A well-trained force of 50 or 60 forest agents and patrolmen judiciously distributed through the several States and Territories embracing forest reserves can readily be made the means of preserving millions of dollars’ worth of public timber annually from the spoilation of trespassers and destruction by fire at a relatively slight cost to the Government, to say nothing of the importance of forest preservation and the growth and use of merchantable timber for the future generations. [27]
By July 1898 there were thirty forest reservations in the United States embracing an estimated area of 40,719,474 acres. Increased appropriations for fiscal year 1899 enabled the General Land Office to expand its forestry operations and “place a graded force of officers in control of the reserves.” The reservations were grouped into eleven districts, each under a forest superintendent. The reserves were placed in immediate charge of forest supervisors with forest rangers under them to patrol the reserves, prevent forest fires and trespass from all sources, and see to the proper cutting and removal of timber.
Instructions were developed for the forest superintendents to guide the administration of the reserves. In regard to forest fires the forest superintendents were directed:
Fire being the paramount danger to which the public forests are exposed, in comparison with which damage from all other sources is insignificant, it is desired that you will see to it that the utmost vigilance and energy are exercised by your forest force to prevent the starting and spread of fires in the reservations under your care.
Each officer should be charged to make the matter of fires in his district the subject of close and careful study, with a view to ascertaining and reporting the chief causes of fires in the different localities and devising means to prevent the same.
They should specially keep a constant watch to prevent fires occurring through the following sources:
1. Hunters, trappers, and other camping parties; more especially those made up of inexperienced persons from towns, who are known to be a fertile source of forest fires.
2. Sheep men, who set out fires to increase pasturage.
3. Prospectors, who frequently set fires to uncover the rock.
4. Parties constructing railroads or making other roadways through the forests.
5. Lumbermen, who should be required to clear the ground of all lops, tops, and other debris resulting from their operations.
The localities specially exposed by reason of settlement, railway construction, lumbering operations, sheep grazing, mining operations, or other causes, should be closely watched, and prompt action taken not only to prevent and extinguish fires, but to bring to justice all parties responsible for fires originating from either carelessness or malicious intent.
The superintendents were instructed “to further report on advisable measures to adopt in devising the most practicable system of patrolling the reservations.” Specifically, they were to report on the establishment of patrols and signal stations and telephonic connections between the two. As to sheep grazing the superintendents were “to inquire into and report upon” the “impact of pasturage on the forests,” and make recommendations to minimize such negative impacts. [28]
