minerals, for firewood, fencing, buildings, mining, prospecting, and other domestic purposes, as may be needed by such persons for such purposes; such timber to be used within the State or Territory, respectively, where such national forests may be located. (16 U.S.C. 477) Access Nothing herein shall be construed as prohibiting the egress or ingress of actual settlers residing within the boundaries of national forests, or from crossing the same to and from their property or homes; and such wagon roads and other improvements may be constructed thereon as may be necessary to reach their homes and to utilize their property under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. Nor shall anything herein prohibit any person from entering upon such national forests for all proper and lawful purposes, including that of prospecting, locating, and developing the mineral resources thereof: Provided, That such persons comply with the rules and regulations covering such national forests. (16 U.S.C. 478) The settlers residing within the exterior boundaries of national forests, or in the vicinity thereof, may maintain schools and churches within such national forests, and for that purpose may occupy any part of the said national forests, not exceeding two acres for each schoolhouse and one acre for a church. (16 U.S.C. 479) Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction The jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, over persons within national forests shall not be affected or changed by reason of their existence, except so far as the punishment of offenses against the United States therein is concerned; the intent and meaning of this provision being that the State wherein any such national forest is situated shall not, by reason of the establishment thereof, lose its jurisdiction, nor the inhabitants thereof their rights and privileges as citizens or be absolved from their duties as citizens of the State. (16 U.S.C. 480) Water Use All waters within the boundaries of national forests may be used for domestic, mining, milling, or irrigation purposes, under the laws of the State wherein such national forests are situated, or under the laws of the United States and the rules and regulations established thereunder. (16 U.S.C. 481) Mining Location and Entry Upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, with the approval of the President, after sixty days notice thereof, published in two papers of general circulation in the State or Territory wherein any national forest is situated, and near the said national forests, any public lands embraced within the limits of any such forest which, after due examination by personal inspection of a competent person appointed for the purpose by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be found better adapted for mining or for agricultural purposes than for forest usage, may be restored to the public domain. And any mineral lands in any national forest which have been or which may be shown to be such, and subject to entry under the existing mining laws of the United States and rules and regulations applying thereto, shall continue to be subject to such location and entry, notwithstanding any provisions herein contained. U.S.C. 482) (16 Rules and Regulations The Secretary of Agriculture shall make provisions for the protection against destruction by fire and depredations upon the public forests and national forests which may have been set aside or which may be hereafter set aside under the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1891, and which may be continued; and he may make such rules and regulations and establish such service as will insure the objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction; and any violation of the provisions of this Act or such rules and regulations shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both. Any person charged with the violation of such rules and regulations [relating to the national forests, national grasslands, and other Title III lands] may be tried and sentenced by any United States magistrate specially designated for that purpose by the court by which he was appointed, in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as provided for in title 18, United States Code, section 3401, subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e), amended. (16 U.S.C. 551) as NOTE.--Authority to issue permits for rights of way repealed by section 706(a) of Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Mineral Springs Leasing • Act of February 28, 1899 (Ch. 221, 30 Stat. 908; 16 U.S.C. 495) The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, under such rules and regulations as he from time to time may make, to rent or lease to responsible persons or corporations applying there for suitable spaces and portions of ground near, or adjacent to, mineral, medicinal, or other springs, within any national forest established within the United States, or hereafter to be established, and where the public is accustomed or desires to frequent, for health or pleasure, for the purpose of erecting upon such leased ground sanitariums or hotels, to be opened for the reception of the public. And he is further authorized to make such regulations, for the convenience of people visiting such springs, with reference to spaces and locations, for the erection of tents or temporary dwelling houses to be erected or constructed for the use of those visiting such springs for health or pleasure. And the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to prescribe the terms and duration and the compensation to be paid for the privileges granted under the provisions of this Act. (16 U.S.C. 495) Public Land Surveys • Act of March 3, 1899 (Ch. 424, 30 Stat. 1074; 16 U.S.C. 488) All standard, meander, township, and section lines of the public-land surveys shall be established under the direction and supervision of the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, whether the lands to be surveyed are within or without reservations, except that where the exterior boundaries of national forests are required to be coincident with standard, township, or section lines, such boundaries may, if not previously. established in the ordinary course of the public-land surveys, be established and marked under the supervision of the Director of the United States Geological Survey whenever necessary to complete the survey of such exterior boundaries. (16 U.S.C. 488) Transfer Act • Act of February 1, 1905 (Ch. 288, 33 Stat. 628; 16 U.S.C. 472, 524, 554) Sec. 1. The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture shall, from and after the passage of this Act, execute or cause to be executed all laws affecting public lands heretofore or hereafter reserved under the provisions of section twenty-four of the Act entitled "An Act to repeal the timber-culture laws, and for other purposes, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and Acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof, after such lands have been so reserved, expecting such laws as affect the surveying, prospecting, locating, appropriating, entering, relinquishing, reconveying, certifying, or patenting of any such lands. (16 U.S.C. 472) * * * * * Sec. 3. Forest supervisors and rangers shall be selected, when practicable, from qualified citizens of the States or Territories in which the national forests respectively, are situated. (16 U.S.C. 554) Sec. 4. [16 U.S.C. 524 Repealed.] NOTE.--Laws relating to surveying, prospecting, reconveying, certifying, or patenting are administered NOTE.--The following is quoted from a letter sent to the Chief of the Forest Service by Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson on February 1, 1905, the date the above Transfer Act was approved by the President: "In the administration of the forest reserves it must be clearly borne in mind that all land is to be devoted to its most productive use for the permanent good of the whole people and not for the temporary benefit of individuals or companies. All the resources of forest reserves are for use, and this use must be brought about in a thoroughly prompt and businesslike manner, under such restrictions only as will insure the permanence of these resources. "The vital importance of forest reserves to the great industries of the western states will be largely |