UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE REPLY TO: 1600 Information Services SUBJECT: WO June 20, 1969 The Forest Service: How it fits in the Federal Structure TO: Regional Foresters, Directors and Area Directors Many employees in the Forest Service have asked how we found our place in the Executive Branch of the Government. This is a brief history of the establishment of the Forest Service in the U. s. Department of Agriculture and of various plans set forth in the past and present to broaden or alter its position in the Federal structure. We hope this brief summary will add to your understanding and THE FOREST SERVICE How it fits in the Federal Structure HISTORY It began in 1873, in Portland, Maine, when the American Association for Advancement of Science appointed a committee to memorialize Congress "....upon the importance of promoting the cultivation of timber and the preservation of forests and to recommend legislation for securing these objects." Congress responded by appropriating $2,000 for a study of forest conditions in the United States and asking Frederick Watts, Commissioner of Agriculture, to conduct it. The Commissioner, in 1876, appointed Dr. Franklin B. Hough "Special Agent" in Agriculture. Dr. Hough was then chosen to head this study. Between 1877 and 1883, Dr. Hough made three comprehensive reports on the forest situation to Congress. In 1881 the forestry agency in the USDA, a fact-finding agency with no forests or lands under its control, was made a "Division of Forestry." Seven years later, Gifford Pinchot became head of the Division with its 12 people--six scientific and six clerical. By July 1, 1905, Pinchot's organization had grown to 734, of which 268 were in the Washington Office and 466 in the field. Many were graduates of newly established forestry schools. The National Forest System as we know it today, had its beginning in an 1891 Act of Congress, under which three Presidents, Harrison, Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, set aside huge acreages of the public domain as "forest reserves." Until 1897, when Congress passed an Act outlining a system of organization and management for these public forests, the "reserves," then under the Department of the Interior, were simply closed areas. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was reorganized into the "Bureau of Forestry" in the USDA with authority to engage in a variety of activities including the preparation of forest management plans for private timberland owners, tree planting, and forest investigations. President Theodore Roosevelt in his December 1904 Message to Congress, echoed the sentiments of many concerned Americans when he said, "All the forest work of the Government should be concentrated in the Department of Agriculture where...all problems relating to growth from the soil are always gathered, and where all the sciences auxiliary to forestry are at hand for prompt and effective cooperation. " The American Forestry Congress, meeting in Washington, D. C. in 1905, strongly endorsed the President's position by passing a resolution calling upon Congress to unify all forest work of the Government, including the Forest Reserves, in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. At this meeting, President Roosevelt declared that the objective of forestry is not to "lock up" forests, but to consider, "how best to combine use with preservation." Congress responded in 1905 by passing the February 1 Act, transferring the Forest Reserves from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. In this same year, under leadership of Pinchot, USDA's Bureau of Forestry was reorganized and named the "Forest Service." In 1906 the Forest Reserves totaled about 107 million acres. On March 1 and 2, 1907, President Roosevelt added, by Presidential Proclamation, 15,654,631 additional acres of "Forest Reserves" to the National Forest System. On March 4, 1907, he signed an appropriation bill on which Congress had attached a rider prohibiting further additions to the Forest Reserves by Presidential Proclamation in certain western States. Since then the restriction has been applied to a few other western States. Creation of National Forests by acquisition has been mostly in the East under the Weeks Act of March 1, 1911. Also in 1907, the Forest Reserves became known as the "National Forests." The 1911 Weeks Act established a new national conservation policy which permits to this day, purchase by the Federal Government of forest lands necessary to the protection of the flow of navigable streams. Today, there are about 187 million acres in the National Forest System which includes about four million acres of National Grasslands. The Forest Service also conducts the world's largest forestry research program and a nationwide cooperative State and private forestry program. Through the years, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service have tried to live up to the confidence in the Department that President Roosevelt exhibited when in 1904 he recommended the concentration of all Federal forestry activities in USDA. Background on Reorganization: From time to time there have been attempts to place the Forest Service in the Department of the Interior or in a new Department of Natural Resources. There were several basic reasons for the original transfer of the Forest Reserves to the Department of Agriculture and the establishment of the Forest Service in that Department. First, as |