Show THE FOREST RESERVES more alore through ignorance than anything else but very few people realize the importance of the forest reserves and the benefits that accrue to the gene general al public through their establishment and maintenance to the mining industry the establishment of these reserves is of especial benefit and this fact will be more fully realized and appreciated when conditions within the environments viron ments of these government patrolled areas become more generally known and when it is impressed upon the public that these reserves were established to protect the rights of the individual as well as to conserve for the use of the present and rising generations the forests the streams and the watersheds of certain portions of uncle sams domain the impression prevails that mining is not allowable within the boundaries of the forest reserves this is a mistake and the prospector and the mining man may locate locale claims on the reservations the same as he can on other public lands and he can have the use of water and timber on his claims subject to certain rulings of the government as to the size of the timber cut and the care of growing forests the idea of the government is that only bona fide claimants shall locate within the reservations and that claim grabbers and speculators shall be barred which gives the legitimate operator a chance that has long been denied him with this in view the government when a claim owner applies for a patent gives orders for the inspection of the ground in question to a forest ranger who reports conditions to the department stating amount of development work performed its value the amount and character ot of mineral disclosed the character of land the acreage involved and the nature of the water supply with such an inspection it would be difficult for the land grabber to get in his work and the interests of the legitimate claim holder and prospector and the general public are thus carefully and closely guarded in days gone by before the establishment of these forest reserves the rights of the mining man were seriously encroached upon by the cattleman the and the timber rustler and the feed and foliage of the ranges were so devastated and destroyed by grazing flocks that the mining man could hardly keep even a horse in the hills without taking in with him a bountiful supply of grain now however these conditions are changed and on mountain plateaus and in little valleys along the mountain streams there are meadows breast high with waving grass while the underbrush is undisturbed instead of hill sides laid bleak and bare by the inroads of thousands of sheep and cattle the destruction of the watersheds the trampling down of young and growing timber and the transformation of a beautiful country into dry and withered desert a scene of enchantment now greets the eye of the visitor to the forest reserves while grazing grazin is allowable to a certain extent the number of the flock or herd is limited and no locality must be used by the sheep or cattle owner more than twenty four hours and these rules are enforced by forest rangers and so strictly that sheep and cattlemen are beginning to take their flocks and herds elsewhere rather than submit to government requirements the rangers also keep careful watch that forest fires do not denude the reservations of their timber growth and it is pleasing to be able to state that primal conditions are beginning to exist again in localities where a few days ago the avarice and selfishness of certain cliques of men were yearly working havoc and destruction to th 2 public domain streams which were nearly extinct because of the destruction of the waier watersheds sheds are now flowing their full quota from one end of the year to the other springs again sparkle in the sun and the evils of floods have been largely overcome the creation of forest reserves is a public blessing and not only to the mining man but to every individual every man woman and child |