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Show KvFORESTERS DISCUSS IXCIM UND District Representatives in Annual Session for Instruction. MANY PAPERS READ ! Conference Seeks to Ob- j tain Uniformity of Policy in Field Work. The annual forest service conference, with an attendance of practically all of the officers of the forest service, department depart-ment of agriculture, held the opening session yesterday in one of the court rooms in the federal building. The eon-icnce eon-icnce is for administrative instrue-tion instrue-tion and to obtain uniformity of policy and procedure in field administration. " Several conferences of this nature have been held by the service -in Salt Lake owing to its favorable location with reference to the public land states. The sessions are not open to the public. During the forenoon session the chief topic of discussion was the progress of land classification as fmnlieable to the determining of boundaries. Papers were read bv Assistant District Dis-trict Foresters C. N. Woods of Ogden and F. C. W. Pooler, of Albuquerque, N. M., which evidenced the progress being be-ing made in the work. Out of a total of 150,000,000 acres of national forest land in tho United States the classification has been complete on approximately 110,000,000 acres. Boundary Changes. This has resulted in many boundary changes,, which. have excluded the main arcv.s of possible agricultural land. Jt was stated that although the total area eliminated by boundary examinations examina-tions since the passage of the classification classifica-tion act" of congress, August 10, 1912, has amounted to approximately 12,000,000 acres, it is apparent that the final results of the work will indicate that the total amount of actual agricultural land originally origi-nally embraced within national forests did not exceed 2 jer cent of the gross area. At least 8o per cent of this has already been made available for settlement, settle-ment, either as a result of eliminations or the opening of individual homesteads to entry. Conditions in Utah. Assistant District Forester C. N. Woods of Ogden presented the situation tRistriftt 4, with particular reference -ci conditions in Utah. Of the eleven i forests in Utah seven have been com- pletely classified, he stated. Intense fr, classification of certain areas on four remain to be finished. This work will, . V it is contemplated, commence the middle April, and the field work will be eo-ti?Wy eo-ti?Wy completed and approved some time the coming winter. At the afternoon meeting of the foresters, for-esters, papers were read and discussions had on questions of settlement, entry surveys and land exchanges by Assistant Assist-ant District Foresters Pooler, Stahl and Fenn of districts. 3, 2 and 1, respectively. respec-tively. Many Tracts Opened. Tho settlement act of June II, 1906, provides for tho listing and opening to agricultural entry of lands within national na-tional forests which are found by tho secretary of agriculture to be chiefly valuable for agricultural purposes. This act resulted in many individual tracts on the national forests being opened to agricultural entry and entered under the nomestead law. ( The piecemeal examination, however, possible under this act was found to lie unsatisfactory, and the act was supplemented supple-mented by the act of August 10, 1912,' which provides for a S3'stematie classification classi-fication of the national forest areas. The result has been that individual set- tlement work. under the act of June 11, 1906, is now nearly a thing of the past, the land largely, "being classified and opener! to agricultural eutry without application. System Extended. I The national forests, being In exceedingly exceed-ingly rough country generally, agricultural agricul-tural rwmsi hi li t i liPinrr limited and tracts suitable for agricultural purposes being generally few and far between, the general system of land office surveys sur-veys and subdividing tho lands into townships, sections, etc., has not been largely extended to national forest areas. To allow the settler on the national na-tional forest, however, to obtain patent to his land an act of congress was passed by which the forest service, at government expense, makes entry surveys sur-veys of homestead claims on the national na-tional forests, and on the strength of these the applicant is able to offer final j proof and secure patent for his land. Range for Livestock. While national forest homesteads are sometimes isolated and community life is not always possible, yet certain advantages ad-vantages are offered. Ah abundance of timber is usually easily obtained for the settler's needs and range handy for his livestock is possible. Areas within the exterior boundaries of national forests are not all under public ownership. Often individuals, states and . corporations, prior to the creation of the natioual forests, acquired tifle to tracts here and there throughout through-out the forests. It is often desirable from the standpoint of the individual owner to consolidate his holdings, and the forest service administration of the national forests is, of course, rendered more feasible if alienations are consolidated, consoli-dated, as well as government lands. Exchanges of Lands. ' "While there is no general law allowing allow-ing the government to exchange its lands for private lands, nevertheless a number of special acts of congress have been passed within the past few years making exchanges of lauds and effecting consolidations in different cases. Often, also, exchanges are made because of the difference in character of the land. The government is solicitous of acquiring ac-quiring land needed for public purposes, for the production of timber and for the protection of important watersheds, while private -owners, and particularly owners of cfit-over lands, often find it to their advantage to exchange for agricultural ag-ricultural or grazing lands. Foresters Attending. Those in attendance at the conference are: chairman H. S. Graves, chief forester, Washington, D. C. Assistant Forester E. A. Sherman, District Dis-trict Forester William L. Hall and Assistant As-sistant District Forester F. W. Eeed of Washington, D. C. District No. .1, Missoula, Jlont. District Dis-trict Forester F. A. Silcox and Assis-tan Assis-tan District Forester F. A. Fenn. District No. 2, Denver. Colo. District Forester Smith Eilev and Assistant Dis- District No. 3, Albuquerque. N. M. District Forester Paul G. Redington. Assistant 'District Forester F. ('.'. W. Pooler and Land Examiner M. M. Cheney. District No. 4. Ogden, Utah District Forester L. F. Kneipp, Assistant District Dis-trict Forester 0, N. .Woods, Land Examiners Exam-iners R, E. Gery, . D. Carver and W. B. R.ice, and Forest Supervisor Carl B. Arentson. District No. 5, San Francisco, Cal. District Forester Court DuBois, Assistant Assis-tant District Forester L. A. Barrett and Land Examiner Charles H. Brothers. District No. f, Portland. Ore. District Dis-trict Forester George H. Cecil, Assistant Assis-tant District Forester C. .T. Buck, Forest Supervisor W. C. Weigle of Ketchikan, Alaska. |