32 The Environmental Debate
Document 28: Act Establishing the First Federal Forest Reserve (1817)
The first national effort to set aside forest lands was undertaken during the administration of James Madison.
It was a pragmatic act to ensure the fledgling U.S. Navy of adequate timber supplies for shipbuilding. Madison’s
secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, who as president would later expand the nation’s forest reserves, was
undoubtedly a supporter of the act.Be it enacted... That the Secretary of the
Navy be authorized, and it shall be his duty,
under the direction of the President of the United
States, to cause such vacant and unappropriated
lands of the United States as produce the live
oak and red cedar timbers to be explored, and
selection to be made of such tracts or portions
thereof, where the principal growth is of either
of the said timbers, as in his judgment may be
necessary to furnish for the navy a sufficient sup-
ply of the said timbers. The said Secretary shall
have power to employ such agent or agents and
surveyor as he may deem necessary for the afore-
said purpose, who shall report to him the tracts
by them selected, with the boundaries ascer-
tained and accurately designated by actual sur-
vey or water courses, which report shall be laid
before the President, which he may approve or
reject in whole or in part; and the tracts of land
thus selected with the approbation of the Presi-
dent, shall be reserved unless otherwise directed
by law, from any future sale of the public lands,
and be appropriated to the sole purpose of sup-
plying timber for the navy of the United States.Source: George P. Sanger, ed., The Statutes at Large, Treaties,
and Proclamations of the United States of America, 14th
Cong., 2nd sess., chap. 22, March 1, 1817, p. 347.one of the most active and fleet young men is sce-
lected and disguised in a robe of buffaloe skin,
having also the skin of the buffaloe’s head with
the years and horns fastened on his head in form
of a cap, thus caparisoned he places himself at a
convenient distance between a herd of buffaloe
and a precipice proper for the purpose, which
happens in many places on this river for miles
together; the other indians now surround the herd
on the back and flanks and at a signal agreed on
all shew themselves at the same time moving for-
ward towards the buffaloe; the disguised indian or
decoy has taken care to place himself sufficiently
nigh the buffaloe to be noticed by them when
they take to flight and runing before them they
follow him in full speede to the precepice, the cat-
tle behind driving those in front over and seeing
them go do not look or hesitate about following
untill the whole are precipitated down the preci-
pice forming one common mass of dead an[d]
mangled carcases: the decoy in the mean time has
taken care to secure himself in some cranney or
crivice of the clift which he had previously pre-
pared for that purpose. the part of the decoy I am
informed is extremely dangerous, if they are not
very fleet runers the buffaloe tread them under
foot and crush them to death, and sometimes
drive them over the precipice also, where they per-
ish in common with the buffaloe. we saw a great
many wolves in the neighbourhood of these man-
gled carcases they were fat and extreemly gentle.Source: Meriwether Lewis, Journal entry for May 29,
1805, in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Original Journals of
the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806, Vol. 2 (New
York: Antiquarian Press, 1959; reprint of edition of 1905),
pp. 93-94.