Transcription:
ARNOLD ARBORETUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. copy Jamaica Plain, Mass., February 1, 1897 Professor Wcicott GIDDS, President
of the National Academy of Sciences. Sir,- The Commission appointed by you last year at the request of the secretary
of the Interior to examine tae forests on the public Demainand prepare a plan for their ears now recommends the establishment
of the following forest reserves: 1. The Black Hills Reserve. This proposed Reserve embraces the central portion of the
Black Hills of South Dakota and has an, estimated area of 967,660 acres, The mountains in this proposed Reserve are covered
with forests of Yellow Pine, and in the valleys between them Spruces and Cottonwoods principally occupy the ground. These
forests are entirely isolated and afford the only timber which is produced in the territory between Minister on the east and
the big Mountains of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains on the west. The region immediately north of the proposed Reserve contains
a number of mines which depend on these forests for timber and fuel, and the settlers in the valleys of streams flowing from
them have no other local timber and Tuel supply. It appears important, therefore, that these forests should be protected and
made permanently productive, and that they should continue to guard the ARNOLD ARBORETUM 2 sources of the numerous streams
which head in the Black Hills and are essential for the irrigation of the desert region adjacent to their courses. The forests
on this proposed Reserve have suffered serious from fire and the illegal, cutting of timber, the mines in this whole region
having been practically Supplied with timber and fuel taken from the public domain. It is evident that without Government
protection these forests, so far as their productive capacity is concern will disappear at the end of a few years and that
their destruction will entail serious injury and loss to the agricultural and mining population of western Worth and South
Dakota. Within this proposed. Reserve there are thirteen quarter selections of land covered by existing entries, findings,
selections or other claims on record on the Tract Book's in the General land Office up to the 20th of January of the present
year. These quarter sections are situated near the boundaries of the proposed Reserve and do not include the township sites
of Custer and other small towns on the line of the northern extension of the Chicago, Burlington Quincy Railroad which crosses
the proposed Reserve from south to north. 2. The Big Horn Reserve. This proposed Reserve has an estimated area of 1,108,080
acres and embraces both slopes of the Big Horn Mountains, a high, isolated and exceedingly broken range in northern central
Wyoming containing a number of peaks varying from 9000 to 11,000 feet in altitude, and the 0223