16 U.S.C. § 475 — Purposes for which national forests may be established and administered

submitted 129 years ago by ch. 2 to r/title-16-CONSERVATION · 160 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

Public lands set aside as national forests before June 4, 1897, and those added later, must be managed under these rules as much as possible. A national forest can only be created to protect the forest, secure good water flow, or supply timber. Land that is more valuable for its minerals or for farming than for forestry is not meant to be included.

This section applies to public lands that the President reserved as national forests before June 4, 1897, whose original orders remain fully in force, and to any public lands set aside as national forests afterward under the earlier law (section 471). These lands must, as far as practical, be controlled and managed according to the rules that follow. A national forest may only be established for one of these reasons: to improve and protect the forest inside its boundaries, to secure good water flow conditions, or to provide a steady timber supply for the needs of United States citizens. This section does not mean to allow land to be included in a national forest if that land is more valuable for its minerals, or for farming, than it is for forestry purposes.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

All public lands designated and reserved prior to June 4, 1897, by the President of the United States under the provisions of section 471 1 of this title, the orders for which shall be and remain in full force and effect, unsuspended and unrevoked, and all public lands that may hereafter be set aside and reserved as national forests under said section, shall be as far as practicable controlled and administered in accordance with the following provisions. No national forest shall be established, except to improve and protect the forest within the boundaries, or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States; but it is not the purpose or intent of these provisions, or of said section, to authorize the inclusion therein of lands more valuable for the mineral therein, or for agricultural purposes, than for forest purposes.

Source credit: (June 4, 1897, ch. 2, § 1, 30 Stat. 34.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1897Enacted · Act of June 4, 1897, ch. 2 · 30 Stat. 34

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 2 on 1897-06-04.

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