1si Session. No. 1336. NATIONAL FOREST ROAD LAW. LETTER FROM THE FORESTER TO HON. EDWARD T. TAYLOR, CONTAINING INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE PRACTICE OF THE AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT IN THE EXPENDITURE OF THE FUNDS UNDER SECTION 8 OF THE GOOD-ROADS BILL, THE NATIONAL FOREST ROAD LAW. AUGUST 22, 1916.-Ordered to be printed. Section 8 of the good-roads law, to which this letter refers, is as follows: SEC. 8. That there is hereby appropriated and made available until expended, out of any moneys in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $1,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, and each fiscal year thereafter, up to and including the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, in all $10,000,000, to be available until expended under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture, upon request from the proper officers of the State, Territory, or county for the survey, construction, and maintenance of roads and trails within or only partly within the national forests, when necessary for the use and development of resources upon which communities within and adjacent to the national forests are dependent: Provided, That the State, Territory, or county shall enter into a cooperative agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture for the survey, construction, and maintenance of such roads or trails upon a basis equitable to both the State, Territory, or county and the United States: Ẩnd provided also. That the aggregate expenditures in any State, Territory, or county shall not exceed ten per centum of the value, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture. of the timber and forage resources which are or will be available for income upon the national-forest lands within the respective county or counties wherein the roads or trails will be constructed; and the Secertary of Agriculture shall make annual report to Congress of the amounts expended hereunder. That immediately upon the execution of any cooperative agreement hereunder the Secretary of Agriculture shall notify the Secretary of the Treasury of the amount to be expended by the United States within or adjacent to any national forest thereunder, and beginning with the next fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter the Secretary of the Treasury shall apply from any and all revenues from such forest ten per centum thereof to reimburse the United States for expenditures made under such agreement until the whole amount advanced under such agreement shall have been returned from the receipts from such national forest. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Hon. EDWARD T. TAYLOR, House of Representatives. FOREST SERVICE, Washington, August 16, 1916. DEAR MR. TAYLOR: In response to your request for information regarding the plan under which the $1,000,000 annually appropriated under section 8 of the Federal aid road act will be distributed between the different States in which the national forests are located and the rules and regulations which will govern the construction of such roads, I am glad to inform you that the general principles and policy which will govern in the matter have been approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. Of the $1,000,000 available annually, 10 per cent will be withheld as a contingent fund from which the necessary expenses of administration will first be paid, and then the remainder of this contingent fund used by the Secretary within his discretion to increase the appropriation to any State or States where there may be immediate need for the construction of an approved project, the cost of which exceeds the regular allotment to the State. The remaining 90 per cent of the amount made annually available will be apportioned to the States as follows: One-half on the basis that the net nationalforest area in each State bears to the total land area of such State, and one-half on the basis that the estimated value of the timber and forage resources of the national forests in such State bears to the total value of the timber and forage resources of the national forests of all the States; provided, however, that in the apportionment the States of Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oklahoma will be considered as a unit of apportionment, and States within which lands have been acquired by the United States under the provisions of the Weeks law shall be considered as a unit of apportionment. The apportionment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, will be made immediately, and the apportionment for future years will be made on or before January 30 next preceding the commencement of each succeeding fiscal year. Any amounts apportioned to the States that may remain unexpended for a period of three years and any balance of the contingent fund that may remain unexpended or unapportioned at the end of each year will be reapportioned by the Secretary to the several States in the manner provided for the original apportionment. Under this plan the amount to be expended in each of the States during the present fiscal year has tentatively been found to be as follows: Before deciding upon this plan of distribution many different factors were tried out in an endeavor to find the basis which would give the most satisfactory results and make the fairest distribution of funds among the different States. Among the factors tried were the area of the national forests in each State as compared with the area of the national forests in all of the States. This did not give as satisfactory results, however, as comparing the area of the national forests in each State with the area of the State, for the reason that it did not take into consideration the comparatively greater need for, Federal aid in the States having the larger proportion of their area within the national forests. The factor of receipts from the national forests gave unsatisfactory results for the reason that the greatest need for roads is often in localities where at present there is the least demand for timber and other forest resources. The factors of population and privately owned lands also gave very unsatisfactory results for the reason that they were very erratic and made a decidedly uneven distribution of the money. After a thorough trial of these and many other factors, it was finally decided that it would be best to make the distribution on the basis only of area and resources. In arriving at the value of the timber resources, the estimated stand of mature timber was used as a basis, at a price per thousand feet which it is considered to be worth under present conditions, or, in other words, the actual cash value of the mature timber at the present time and under present conditions of transportation and accessibility. This gave more satisfactory results than a valuation on a flat rate which in fact would base the distribution on the amount of timber rather than its value. In fixing the value of the grazing resources it was estimated that the forage is actually worth twice the amount of the present moderate grazing fee, and that it should be capitalized on a basis of yielding 5 per cent income. Under this plan the grazing value of each forest was estimated to be twenty times double the present grazing fee for the number of stock it would support. This may be somewhat in favor of the States having proportionately the larger share of the grazing resources, but it is not more than its real value. The withholding of $100,000 each year as a contingent fund will give the Secretary of Agriculture an opportunity to increase the allotment of any State which apparently does not get its fair share of the appropriation under the above plan. It will be required that applications shall be made by the proper officer or officers of the State or county within which the proposed road is located and filed with the district forester of the Forest Service on or before October 1, 1916, for participation in the apportionment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and thereafter that they shall be filed on or before January 1 next preceding each fiscal year. Each application must contain a statement of the public needs to be served by the proposed road and the manner and extent to which it would aid in the development of the resources upon which communities within or adjacent to the national forests are dependent, and also must show the general location of the proposed road and its length, grade, and estimated cost. In general, States and counties will be required to furnish cooperation in an amount at least equal to 50 per cent of the estimated cost of surveys and construction. However, upon a satisfactory showing by the applicant State or county that such proportion of cooperation is inequitable, the Secretary may alter such proportion and fix the ratio of cooperation upon a basis equitable to both the State or county and the United States. The cooperation by States and counties may be in the form of money, labor, and materials, or the construction of cooperative roads. It is anticipated that where other factors are equal the approval of a project may be determined upon the relative amount of cooperation offered. The complete set of rules and regulations is now being reviewed by the solicitor for the department, and immediately upon their approval by the Secretary of Agriculture I shall be glad to furnish you a complete copy of the same. A great many applications have already been received and it is important that early action be taken. In all cases where applications have not already been filed with the district foresters, whose offices are located, respectively, at Missoula, Mont., Denver, Colo., Albuquerque, N. Mex., Ogden, Utah, San Francisco, Cal., Portland, Oreg., and Washington, D. C., early action should be taken if it is expected to ask for consideration of projects in the allotment of the funds available for the first year. Very sincerely, yours, O H. S. GRAVES, Forester. CONGRESS ONE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOURS OF SERVICE ON RAILROADS ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE AUGUST 29, 1916 AUGUST 29, 1916.-Referred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign WASHINGTON |