History Introduction

Periods/eras

1. 1787 - 1934: Age of Disposition -- grants, settlement, privatization, commodity development
2. 1872 - 1964: Age of Conservation -- shift to retention and federal management
3. 1964 - 1995: Age of Preservation -- beginning with the Wilderness Act of 1964, the trend up to 1995 has been toward resource preservation in a pristine state and not "conservation" per se.
4. 1995 to date: Age of Newt / Will the 104th Congress make substantial changes to federal lands policy?

Survey System

• 1 square mile; 640 acres
• 4 1/4's @ 160 acres each
• 36 sections in a township
• section numbers start in NE corner.

Turning Points in Federal Policy Regarding the Federal Public Lands

• 1872 Yellowstone Park's 2 million acres were set aside at request of RR companies to promote travel. Congress has continued to set aside lands for national parks.
• 1891 Congressional concern about depletion of timber; Congress gave the President power to reserve forests for "national purposes". Used sparingly in the 1890s; in 1907 Congress revoked the power but at the last minute Roosevelt declared millions of acres to be reserved for commodity purposes only and not for settlement/RRs.
• 1903 Roosevelt declares Pelican Island to be a wildlife refuge -- a sanctuary for pelicans. His policy was to protect wildlife and promote national parks.
• 1906 Antiquities Act passed to protect Indian reservations from vandalism, to promote scientific interests at national monuments.
• 1916 National Park Service created -- Organic Act, dual mandate. Now there are 50 national parks and hundreds of reservations.
• 1934 The Taylor Grazing Act passed which permitted the President to withdraw all unclaimed and unreserved lands from the federal grazing districts -- not a popular move with ranchers. Those lands then to be managed by the Bureau of Land Managment (BLM).. 1934 effectively marks the end of Homesteading.
• 1960 Multiple Use and SustainedYield Act, broadened purposes of the national forests
• 1964 Wilderness Act established the overlay system
• 1964 National Forest Management Act reforms forest planning process
• 1969 National Environmental Policy Act mandates public involvement and EISs in the federal public lands planning process
• 1973 Endangered Species Act amendments; original act enacted in 1966
• 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act passed, influenced by 1970 Public Lands Law Review Commission Report ("One Third of the Nation's Land"); shift of federal lands policy to retention. Most grazing lands now to remain in federal ownership.