Show december 22 1915 lion ilon joseph howell house of representatives den V mr howell reference is made to your lette letle december 13 relative to certain lands in utah set apart as grazing lands for the indians of the former uintah indian reservation regarding which it is stated thata memorial was waag adopted by the utah Legisla legislature tuie requesting that L said lands be ba included in the ashley national forest you state that if new legislation is required and the plan 1 is approved by this office you would be pleased to introduce a bill in accordance with out sug gest est ions I 1 in 1902 a very thorough field examination was made by an experienced forest officer for the purpose of determining what lands in the then uintah indian reservation should be permanently reserved for forest and watershed protection I 1 the act of march 3 1905 1 33 stat 1048 authorized thc pr president e s 1 dent to set aside asid e such lands before opening the indian res er with the further pro aviso that the proceeds from any timber sold from such reserved lands prior to june 30 1920 should be paid to the indians under this authority and before I 1 opening the reservation thea president reserved all lands val bable for national forest durpos es Cs it app appears c ar s from the records of I 1 this office that none of the re 1 ma ining lands are such as should 1 properly be included within a national forest since they are neither cither valuable for timber nor for istre im alov now regulation this i office could coula not therefore theredo ie approve their addition to a national forest under the presumption of their being forest lands on the other hand it is realized that adja adjacent cerit the national forests I 1 in that region are very valuable grazing grazin g lands which might be economically and advantage bously administered in connection with the nat national ional forest lands these lands however were specifically reserved for grazing purposes by the indians and in in 1 accordance cor dance with joint congressional resolution no 31 approved e d june 9 1902 32 stat as expressed in the following section 11 in addition to the allotments in in sev to the uintah and iwhite white river utes of the uintah indian reservation in the state of utah the secretary of the interior shall before any of said lands are opened to disposition under any public land law select and set apart for the use in common of the indians of that res elation such an amount of grazing lands therein at one or more places as will the reasonable require imenes ments of said indians for the thea grazing of live stock in view of the above enactment which specifically di directs erects the reservation of these lands for certain definite imposes pm poses it J is alpar nt that any action looking to the inclusion of said areas within the national forests could properly be tak taken en only by act of congress if you contemplate introducing such a measure for the purpose 1 of carrying out the memerial mem prial passed by the utah state legis lature I 1 would be very gladdo glad to confer with y you 0 u regarding it since a field examination woo would be necessary in order to determine just what lands should be i so included very sincerely yours M F POTTER c acting forester |