The Historical Context of Contemporary Forest Management

Abstract

The federal government controls one-third of the nation’s land—740 million acres. These “public lands” contain tremendous and varied resources. Some of these resources are found on the surface: timber, grazing and agricultural lands, wildlife habitat, recreational and scenic amenities, and wilderness. Others lie beneath the surface: coal, potash, phosphate, sulfur, oil shale, helium, copper, and oil and gas. The resources comprising the public lands are managed by several different federal agencies. The Department of the Interior has jurisdiction over public lands through its Bureau of Land Management (398 million acres), Fish and Wildlife Service (43 million acres) and National Park Service (68 million acres). The Department of Agriculture, through the U.S. Forest Service, controls 187.5 million acres. The remaining acreage is split amongst many different agencies including the Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Energy.