to this subject was had, two bills of a local character were passed, one “authorizing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes,” and one “for the sale of timber lands in the States of California and Oregon and in Washington Territory.”
In the opinion of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which is on record in this department, these two acts are more calculated to hasten the destruction of the forests in the States and Territories named than to secure the preservation of them. The first above-mentioned act provides in its first section —
That all citizens of the United States and other persons, bona fide residents of the State of Colorado or Nevada, or either of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and all other mineral districts of the United States, shall be, and are hereby, authorized and permitted to fell and remove, for building, agricultural, mining, and other domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the public lands, said lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either of said States, Territories or districts in which such citizens or persons may be at the time bona fide residents, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe for the protection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such lands, and for other purposes: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not extend to railroad corporations.
The second section makes it
the duty of the register and receiver of any local land office in whose district any mineral land may be situated, to ascertain from time to time whether any timber is being cut or used upon such lands, except for the purposes authorized by this act, within their respective land districts, and, if so, they shall immediately notify the Commissioner of the General Land Office of that fact.
Of this act the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Interior, expresses the following opinion:
It is a fact well known that while almost all the timber-bearing land in those States and all the Territories, except Dakota and Washington, is regarded as mineral, only a small portion is so in reality. The effect of this bill will, in my opinion, be to prevent the survey and sale of any of the timber lands, or the timber upon the lands, in the States and Territories named, thus cutting off large prospective revenues that might and should be derived from the sale of such lands or the timber upon them. It is equivalent to a donation of all the timber lands to the inhabitants of those States and Territories, which will be found to be the largest donation of the public domain hitherto made by Congress. This bill authorizes the registers and receivers of the land offices in the several districts in which the lands are situated to make investigations without any specific directions from the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to settle and adjust their own accounts, and retain from the moneys coming into their hands arising from sales of lands such amounts as they may expend or cause to be expended. This method will be found exceedingly expensive and result in no good. Experience has shown that the machinery of the land offices is wholly inadequate to prevent depredations.
The “Rules and Regulations” issued in pursuance of the first section of this act are to be found in the report of the Commissioner of
