“United States Senate
“Committee on Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game

“April 16, 1902

“Prof. Alex. Agassiz,

“President National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

“Dear Sir: There is now before Congress a bill looking to the establishment of a national forest reserve to include the higher and larger masses of mountains in the Southern Appalachian region.

“This measure is to be considered at an early date by the Senate Committee on Forest Reservations, and in order that the best interests of the country may be served in this occasion I will be greatly pleased if the Committee on Forest Reservations may have the benefit of the Academy’s advice.

“Yours very truly,
“J.R. Burton.”

“Boston, April 30, 1902.

“Alexander Agassiz, Esq.,

“President National Academy of Sciences.

“Sir: The committee of the Academy to whom you have referred the request of the chairman of the Committee on Forestry of the Senate of the United States for an opinion on the advisability of establishing an Appalachian forest reserve, have examined Senate Document No. 84, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session, being the message from the President of the United States transmitting a report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the Southern Appalachian region (without the accompanying illustrations), and a copy of Senate bill 5528, for the purchase of a national forest reserve in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region, to be known as the ‘National Appalachian Forest Reserve,’ and beg to state that they are in full sympathy with the principle of forest reservations intended to preserve the gradual distribution of rainfall in the flow of rivers heading therein.

“They do not feel, however, without a personal examination of the region I question, qualified to give an opinion as to whether the recent disastrous floods in various rivers flowing from the Appalachian Mountains, recounted in the reports transmitted by the Bureau of Forestry and by the Geological Survey and contained in Document No. 84, resulted from the actual destruction of the forests, and as to whether their repetition could be prevented by a restoration of the forest growth. No data or records are presented to show that floods equally large did not occur in older times.

“To make a proper report would require a certain time, as well as an appropriation to meet the expenses incurred by the committee of the academy.

“As regards the provisions of the bill, it appears to the committee to be absolutely essential that the Government shall have full ownership and control of all reserved lands, and that these shall be in large continuous blocks. To limit such ownership to detached lots, surrounded by areas held by private parties upon whose concurrence success must depend, would seem to be entering on a dangerous copartnership likely to result in large expenditures and litigation.

“C. S. Sargent,
“Henry L. Abbot,
“Wm. H. Brewer,
“Committee.”