between States States is hereby given to each of the several States of the Agreements Union to enter into any agreement or compact not in for, authorized. conflict with any law of the United States, with any other State or States for the purpose of conserving the forests and the water supply of the States entering into such agreement or compact. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 552.) fire protection. watersheds of SEC. 2. That the sum of two hundred thousand dollars Appropriation for cooperation is hereby appropriated and made available until expended, with States for out of any moneys in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with any State or group of States, when requested to do so, in the protection from fire of the forested watersheds of navigable streams; and the Sec- Forest lands on retary of Agriculture is hereby authorized, and on such navigable rivers. conditions as he deems wise, to stipulate and agree with any State or group of States to cooperate in the organization and maintenance of a system of fire protection on any private or State forest lands within such State or States, and situated upon the watershed of a navigable Provisios. river: Provided, That no such stipulation or agreement required. shall be made with any State which has not provided by law for a system of forest-fire protection: Provided further, That in no case shall the amount expended in any limited. State exceed in any fiscal year the amount appropriated by that State for the same purpose during the same fiscal year. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 563.) State law Expenditures for acquiring waters of navi SEC. 3. That there is hereby appropriated, for the fiscal Appropriations year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and ten, lands at headthe sum of one million dollars, and for each fiscal year gable streams. thereafter a sum not to exceed two million dollars for use in the examination, survey, and acquirement of lands located on the headwaters of navigable streams or those which are being or which may be developed for navigable purposes: Provided, That the provisions of this section Limited to 1915. shall expire by limitation on the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and fifteen. Reservation SEC. 4. That a commission, to be known as the National National Forest Forest Reservation Commission, consisting of the Secre- Commission. tary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary To pass on purof Agriculture, and two members of the Senate, to be chases of lands. selected by the President of the Senate, and two members of the House of Representatives, to be selected by the Speaker, is hereby created and authorized to consider and pass upon such lands as may be recommended for purchase as provided in section six of this Act, and to fix the price or prices at which such lands may be purchased, and no purchases shall be made of any lands until such lands have been duly approved for purchase by said commission: Provided, That the members of the commission Service of herein created shall serve as such only during their incumbency in their respective official positions, and any vacancy on the commission shall be filled in the manner as the original appointment. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. members. Annual reports. Location of lands. Examination by Geological Survey. Purchase of lands approved by commission. Consent of Acceptance of lands in national forests. SEC. 5. That the commission hereby appointed shall, through its president, annually report to Congress, not later than the first Monday in December, the operations and expenditures of the commission, in detail, during the preceding fiscal year. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 513.) SEC. 6. That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to examine, locate, and recommend for purchase such lands as in his judgment may be necessary to the regulation of the flow of navigable streams, and to report to the National Forest Reservation Commission the results of such examinations: Provided, That before any lands are purchased by the National Forest Reservation Commission said lands shall be examined by the Geological Survey and a report made to the Secretary of Agriculture, showing that the control of such lands will promote or protect the navigation of streams on whose watersheds they lie. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 515.) SEC. 7. That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to purchase, in the name of the United States, such lands as have been approved for purchase by the National Forest Reservation Commission at the price or prices fixed by said commission: Provided, That no deed or other instrument of conveyance shall be accepted or approved by the Secretary of Agriculture under this Act until the legislature of the State in which the land lies shall have consented to the acquisition of such land by the United States for the purpose of preserving the navigability of navigable streams. [The following proviso added by the act of Mar. 3, 1925, 43 Stat. 1215.] Provided further, That with the approval of the National Forest Reservation Commission as provided by sections 6 and 7 of this Act, and when the public interests will be benefited thereby, the Secretary of Agriculture be, and hereby is, authorized, in his discretion, to accept on behalf of the United States title to any lands within the exterior boundaries of national forests acquired under this Act which, in his opinion, are chiefly valuable for the purgrant of timber poses of this Act, and in exchange there for to convey by deed not to exceed an equal value of such national forest land in the same State, or he may authorize the grantor to cut and remove an equal value of timber within such national forests in the same State, the values in each case to be determined by him: And provided further, That before any such exchange is effected notice of the contemplated exchange reciting the lands involved shall be published once each week for four successive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the county or counties in which may be situated the lands to be accepted, and in some like newspaper published in any county in which may be situated any lands or timber to be given in such exchange. Timber given in such exchanges shall Conveyance of other lands or therefor. Advertising of proposed exchanges. Supervision of timber removal, etc. * Amended by sec. 6 of the act of June 7, 1924 (43 Stat. 653), p. 139. be cut and removed under the laws and regulations relating to such national forests, and under the direction and supervision and in accordance with the requirements of Accepted lands the Secretary of Agriculture. Lands so accepted by the added to the Secretary of Agriculture shall, upon acceptance, become national forests. parts of the national forests within whose exterior boundaries they are located, and be subject to all the provisions of this Act. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 516.) SEC. 8. That the Secretary of Agriculture may do all Title. things necessary to secure the safe title in the United States to the lands to be acquired under this Act, but no payment shall be made for any such lands until the title shall be satisfactory to the Attorney-General and shall be vested in the United States. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 517.) etc. Proviso. to regulations, SEC. 9. [As amended by the act of March 4, 1913, 37 Rights of way, Stat. 828, 855.]-That such acquisition by the United States shall in no case be defeated because of located or defined rights of way, easements, and reservations, which, from their nature will, in the opinion of the National Forest Reservation Commission and the Secretary of Agriculture, in no manner interfere with the use of the lands so encumbered, for the purposes of the Act: Pro- Reservations by vided, That such rights of way, easements, and reserva- owners, subject tions retained by the owner from whom the United etc. States receives title, shall be subject to the rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture for their occupation, use, operation, protection, and administration, and that such rules and regulations shall be expressed in and made part of the written instrument conveying title to the lands to the United States; and the use, occupation, and operation of such rights of way, easements, and reservations shall be under, subject to, and in obedience with such rules and regulations so expressed. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 518.) Sale of agricul lic uses. SEC. 10. That inasmuch as small areas of land chiefly tural tracts not valuable for agriculture may of necessity or by inadvert- needed for pubence be included in tracts acquired under this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may, in his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, upon application or otherwise, to examine and ascertain the location and extent of such areas as in his opinion may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the forests or to stream flow and which are not needed for public purposes, and may Limit of tracts. list and describe the same by metes and bounds, or otherwise, and offer them for sale as homesteads at their true value, to be fixed by him, to actual settlers, in tracts not exceeding eighty acres in area, under such joint rules and regulations as the Secretary of Agriculture and the state jurisdicSecretary of the Interior may prescribe; and in case of tion resumed. such sale the jurisdiction over the lands sold shall, ipso facto, revert to the State in which the lands sold lie. All rights subject to provi And no right, title, interest, or claim in or to any lands sions of this act. acquired under this Act, or the waters thereon, or the products, resources, or use thereof after such lands shall have been so acquired, shall be initiated or perfected, except as in this section provided. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 519.) Lands reserved permanently as SEC. 11. That, subject to the provisions of the last prenational forests. ceding section, the lands acquired under this Act shall be permanently reserved, held, and administered as national forest lands under the provisions of section twentyfour of the Act approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one (volume twenty-six, Statutes at Large, page eleven hundred and three), and Acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof. And the Secretary of Agriculture may from time to time divide the lands acquired under this Act into such specific national forests and so designate the same as he may deem best for administrative purposes. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 521.) Designation of divisions. State jurisdiction not affected. Offenses against the United States excepted. Payment from receipts to States for county schools and roads. Division. Maximum to counties. Appropriation for expenses of commission. SEC. 12. That the jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, over persons upon the lands acquired under this Act shall not be affected or changed by their permanent reservation and administration as national forest lands, except so far as the punishment of offenses against the United States is concerned, the intent and meaning of this section being that the State wherein such land is situated shall not, by reason of such reservation and administration, lose its jurisdiction nor the inhabitants thereof their rights and privileges as citizens or be absolved from their duties as citizens of the State. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 480.) SEC. 13. That five 10 per centum of all moneys received during any fiscal year from each national forest into which the lands acquired under this Act may from time to time be divided shall be paid, at the end of such year, by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State in which such national forest is situated, to be expended as the state legislature may prescribe for the benefit of the public schools and public roads of the county or counties in which such national forest is situated: Provided, That when any national forest is in more than one State or county the distributive share to each from the proceeds of such forest shall be proportional to its area thereon: Provided further, That there shall not be paid to any State for any county an amount equal to more than forty per centum of the total income of such county from all other sources. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 500.) SEC. 14. That a sum sufficient to pay the necessary expenses of the commission and its members, not to exceed an annual expenditure of twenty-five thousand dollars, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury 10 Increased to 25 per centum by the act of June 30, 1914 (38 Stat. 415, 441). not otherwise appropriated. Said appropriation shall be Accounts. Approved, March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 961). An Act To provide for the protection of forest lands, for the reforestation of denuded areas, for the extension of national forests, and for other purposes, in order to promote the continuous production of timber on lands chiefly suitable therefor. Conservation of watersheds. cut-over, or de etc., directed. SEC. 6. That section 6 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (Thirty-sixth Statutes at Large, page 961), is hereby Examination, amended to authorize and direct the Secretary of Agri- etc., of forested culture to examine, locate and recommend for purchase nuded lands, for such forested, cut-over or denuded lands within the regulating flow, watersheds of navigable streams as in his judgment may Vol. 36, p. 961. be necessary to the regulation of the flow of navigable Post, p. 850. streams or for the production of timber and to report Cooperative exto the National Forest Reservation Commission the re- amination with Geological Sursults of such examination; but before any lands are vey before purpurchased by the commission said lands shall be exam- chase by Commisined by the Secretary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Director of the Geological Survey, and a report made by them to the commission showing that the control of such lands by the Federal Government will promote or protect the navigation of streams or by the Secretary of Agriculture showing that such control will promote the production of timber thereon. (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 515.) Approved, June 7, 1924 (43 Stat. 653). An Act Authorizing appropriations to be expended under the provisions of sections 4 to 14 of the Act of March 1, 1911, entitled "An Act to enable any State to cooperate with any other State or States, or with the United States, for the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams, and to appoint a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserving the navigability of navigable rivers," as amended of navigable Vol. 36, p. 961; Vol. 43, p. 655, 424, 425, 422, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- Conservation tives of the United States of America in Congress as- waters. sembled, That there is hereby authorized to be appro- vol. 37, p. 855 priated, out of any money in the United States Treasury Vol. 38, p. 441 not otherwise appropriated, to be expended under the U. S. C., pp. provisions of sections 4 to 14 of the Act of March 1, 428. 1911 (United States Code, title 16, sections 513 to 521), as amended by the Acts of March 4, 1913 (United States Code, title 16, section 518), June 30, 1914 (United States Sums authorCode, title 16, section 500), and June 7, 1924 (United ized for fiscal States Code, title 16, section 570), not to exceed $3,000,000 1932. years, 1931, 11992-31- -10 |