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ADDITION TO CACHE NATIONAL FOREST, IDAHO

JANUARY 18, 1932.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. SMITH of Idaho, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 393]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 393) authorizing an addition to the Cache National Forest, Idaho, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment.

The land which it is proposed to add to the Cache National Forest aggregates about 17,000 acres in a strip 2 miles wide lying between the irrigated farm lands and the present boundary of the national forest. Because of the heavy grazing on this section by roving bands of sheep the vegetation is destroyed and the melting snow and rain washes down the gravel into the irrigating ditches and onto the farms below. This legislation is necessary in order to protect the farms below and also to conserve the pasture for grazing of their flocks. There are about 10,000 feet of Douglas fir per acre on the land which it is proposed to add to the national forest.

The following petition and affidavits by farmers who are petitioning for this legislation set forth the facts more in detail. There is also submitted the letter from Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, to whom the bill was submitted for a report.

INKOM, BANNOCK COUNTY, IDAHO, December 7, 1926.

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SIR: We, the undersigned residents of Bannock County, State of Idaho, and owners of lands lying adjacent to the lands hereinafter described, and as such owners are farming said adjacent lands and are using the waters flowing from the streams having their source from said hereinafter-described lands, for irrigating the said lands owned by us, respectively, hereby petition that you recommend to Congress that said lands be included within and made a part of the Cache National Forest, in Idaho, upon proclamation of the President.

That said lands are rough, mountainous lands, and are valuable only for supplying water for the streams aforesaid; for the production of timber and for grazing of livestock in the summer months. That in recent years said lands have been overrun with migratory herds of livestock, so that the grasses, shrub

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bery, and younger trees have been severely pastured, stripped, and destroyed, so that said lands are becoming less valuable for stream flow production year by year, and if such condition should continue, will become so denuded of vegeta. tion and tree growth as to render said lands wholly useless in protecting and conserving the snows and moisture to maintain the streams and for irrigation as aforesaid.

Your petitioners believe that if said lands should be annexed and included in said Cache National Forest, that under the supervision of the said Forest Service, the same can be protected, and at least practically restored to its former value in furnishing stream flow.

And your petitioners will ever pray, etc.
Respectfully,

AFFIDAVIT

(49 signatures.)

STATE OF IDAHO,

County of Bannock, ss:

Lewis Carlile, whose post-office address is McCammon, Idaho, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I own a ranch on Marsh Creek at the mouth of Bell Marsh Creek, which heads on the proposed Marsh Creek addition to the Cache National Forest. The lands within this proposed addition have been grazed so heavy during the last few years that most of the vegetation on the watershed has been destroyed, so that now when the snow melts, instead of the water going into the ground, it all comes down the creeks in the form of floods, bringing large quantities of gravel down with it. So much of this gravel has been washed down that it has filled up my irrigating ditches and covered a considerable quantity of my farm lands. "If something is not done to remedy this condition, which is getting worse each year, our farms will soon be of little value.'

LEWIS CARLILE.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of February, 1928. [SEAL.] PAUL V. NASH, Notary, Public.

STATE OF IDAHO,

County of Bannock, ss:

AFFIDAVIT

P. M. Morris, whose post-office address is McCammon, Idaho, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"Joe Morris, Dan Green, Erb Green, Cumer Green, Joe Harris, Ike Allen, and myself all own farms along Marsh Creek. These farms are watered by a canal, owned by us, which is fed by Bell Marsh Creek. This creek has its head on the land within the proposed addition to the Cache National Forest. The watershed at the head of Bell Marsh Creek has been abused by overgrazing during the last few years to such an extent that now floods are very common which wash down a great amount of rock and gravel.

"During the irrigating season it is almost impossible for us to keep our canal open, due to the gravel filling it up. In fact this trouble is getting so bad that if something is not done to overcome it our farms will be of but small value." PARLEY M. MORRIS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of February, 1928. [SEAL.] PAUL V. NASH, Notary Public.

STATE OF IDAHO,

County of Bannock, ss:

AFFIDAVIT

Jared Green, whose post-office address is McCammon, Idaho, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I own a ranch on Marsh Creek at the mouth of Goodenough Creek, which creek heads on land within the proposed addition to the Cache National Forest. The lands within this proposed addition have been grazed too heavily for a number of years until the watershed cover has been almost ruined. In the spring when the snow goes off there is no forage cover to hold the water back, so now the water all comes down in the form of floods bringing with it large quantities of rock and gravel. Such great quantities of rock and gravel have been washed down Goodenough Creek into Marsh Creek that Marsh Creek has been almost filled

and the water has now backed up flooding a considerable quantity of my farm land." JARED GREEN.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of February, 1928. [SEAL.]

STATE OF IDAHO,

County of Bannock, ss:

AFFIDAVIT

PAUL V. NASH, Notary Public.

B. Y. Green, whose post-office address is McCammon, Idaho, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I have a ranch on Marsh Creek at mouth of Goodenough Creek, which creek heads on land within the proposed addition to the Cache National Forest. Since these lands are being grazed too heavy by livestock the watershed of this creek is being denuded of all vegetation to the extent that there is no cover to hold the snow in the spring and the result is floods come down the Goodenough Creek, washing large quantities of gravel and rock so that it is impossible to keep my irrigation ditches open. Also, the gravel and rock have been washed onto my farm land, ruining it for agricultural purposes.

"Unless this watershed is protected from too heavy grazing, the damage by floods will grow worse each year until the farm lands, depending upon this area for water, will become almost valueless."

B. Y. GREEN.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of February, 1928. [SEAL.] DANL. V. NASH, Notary Public.

STATE OF IDAHO,

County of Bannock, 88:

AFFIDAVIT

Ray Parkinson, whose post-office address is McCammon, Idaho, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I own a meadow ranch along Marsh Creek just above the mouth of Bell Marsh Creek which heads on the land within the proposed addition to the Cache National Forest. The land within this proposed addition has been so heavily grazed for a number of years that the watershed cover has been almost ruined. Late years the rock and gravel come down Bell Marsh Creek in such large quantities that Marsh Creek has been filled up to the extent that now the water backs up, covering at least 80 acres of my land.

"I have spent considerable money trying to remove this gravel so as to lower the water but more gravel is soon washed into the creek again.

"There are a number of farms along Marsh Creek, situated similar to my place, that are all being flooded and injured on account of the damage that has resulted to this watershed on account of it not being protected from destructive grazing."

RAY PARKINSON.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of February, 1928.
PAUL V. NASH, Notary Public.

JANUARY 4, 1932.

Hon. JOHN M. EVANS,
Chairman Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. EVANS: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of December 18, inclosing copy of H. R. 393, a bill authorizing an addition to the Cache National Forest, Idaho, and asking for a report thereon.

An examination of this bill discloses that it is identical with S. 6130 in the Seventy-first Congress on which this department made a favorable report to the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys on February 20, 1931. In that report the department said:

'The proposed legislation would give a national forest status to certain lands lying adjacent to one of the divisions of the Cache National Forest, in the State of Idaho. The area involved is approximately 19,520 acres. It lies on the eastern slope of Bannock Mountain and is composed of rather rough land which is unsuited to cultivation. A considerable part of it bears a stand of timber consisting of Douglas fir and Alpine fir. It is estimated that there are approxi

mately 16,000,000 feet of this timber. The area is being used for the grazing of sheep and cattle during the spring, summer, and fall, and due to lack of management and heavy overgrazing a good deal of injury has resulted to the cover.

"During the past 10 years several bills have been introduced in Congress having for their purpose the addition of these lands to the Cache National Forest. Data obtained by the Forest Service during the summer of 1930 for the use of the President's Commission on the Public Domain indicate quite clearly that it would be in the public interest to give these lands a national-forest status, and a recommendation to that effect was made to the commission by the Forester. "These lands could be administered by the Forest Service as a part of the Cache National Forest without adding to the cost of the administration of that forest."

The department believes that legislation proposed by House bill 393 would be in the public interest.

Sincerely yours,

ARTHUR M. HYDE, Secretary.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, January 15, 1932.

Hon. JOHN M. EVANS,

Chairman Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In compliance with your request of December 18, 1931, for a report on H. R. 393, which is a bill that would authorize an addition to the Cache National Forest, Idaho, I transmit herewith a memorandum on the subject that has been submitted by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. After a review of the proposed measure, I agree with the commissioner.

Very truly yours,

RAY LYMAN WILBUR, Secretary.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, January 13, 1932.

I have by departmental reference the request of the chairman of the Committee on the Public Lands for report on H. R. 393.

The bill would add to the Cache National Forest in Idaho the public lands within the therein described area, subject to valid existing claims or entries, and extend the provisions of the national forest exchange law of March 20, 1922 (42 Stat. 465), as amended, over the other lands within such area. Similar legislation was proposed in S. 6130 of the Seventy-first Congress, and you submitted an adverse report thereon on February 18, 1931.

The area involved is situated in the Bannock Mountains, contains 19,406 acres, and the records of this office show that 1,252 acres in scattered tracts have been disposed of under the applicable public-land laws and that the remainder of the area is public, 440 acres thereof being embraced in pending applications to purchase under the isolated tract law.

The area is within that part of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation ceded under agreement ratified by the act of June 6, 1900 (32 Stat. 672), in consideration of the payment by the United States of $600,000 to and for the Indians. The lands described in the bill were classified by this department as grazing lands at $1.25 an acre, and opened to entry under the provisions of the said act of June 6, 1900, by proclamation of May 7, 1902, the price fixed for the land being for the purpose of reimbursing the Government for the amount paid the Indians. Owing to the restrictions of the act, however, these grazing lands have been held by the department to be not subject to designation under either the enlarged or stock raising homestead law.

In view of the classification which has been made of these lands, it is apparent that the primary object sought is the regulation of grazing, a purpose not within the purview of the laws establishing and defining the Federal forest reservation policy.

It is not, in my opinion, a wise method of dealing with the grazing problem of the unreserved public lands to add small tracts such as that involved in the legislation proposed to a national forest, instead of coordinating the use of all such lands under a comprehensive system which would promote the economic value of the entire public domain. I therefore recommend that the bill be not enacted.

О

C. C. MOORE, Commissioner.

MATERNITY AND INFANCY

JANUARY 18, 1932.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. COOPER, of Ohio, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 7525]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7525) to provide that the United States shall cooperate with the States in promoting the general health of the rural population of the United States and the welfare and hygiene of mothers and children, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass.

The bill in substance has the approval of the Treasury and Interior Departments as will appear by letters hereto attached, relating to H. R. 12995, a similar bill considered by the committee in the last session of the Seventy-first Congress. The text of the bill as reported by the committee follows:

That for the purpose of coordinating the general rural health and maternal and child health activities hereinafter provided for, there is hereby created a board to be known as the Federal Health Coordinating Board (hereinafter referred to as the board), which shall consist of the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, who shall be the chairman, the chief of the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor, and the Commissioner of Education of the Department of the Interior.

SEC. 2. The board shall have the power to approve or disapprove all plans providing for cooperative work between the United States and the several States under this act, which plans shall be submitted to the board in accordance with sections 4 and 5 of this act, and such other powers as are conferred upon it by this

act.

SEC. 3. (a) For the purpose of enabling the Public Health Service to cooperate with the State agencies of health in the development of local health units or organizations for the prevention of disease and the promotion of health among the rural population as provided in section 4 of this act, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the sum of $255,000, $5,000 of which shall be made available annually to each State in the manner and under the conditions hereinafter provided; and there are hereby authorized to be appropriated the following additional sums for such purposes, to be expended as hereinafter provided: For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932, the sum of $750,000; for the fiscal year ending

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