Forest Management

The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 and the Forest Management Act of 1897, or sometimes the Organic Act of 1897, are considered the beginning of federal American conservation legislation. Americans were draining natural resources creating support for regulations by groups like conservationists worried about rapid deforestation or hunters trying to protect game. The Forest Reserve Act allowed the executive branch to set aside forested lands as public reservations. The first set aside as a park for the American people was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in 1872. The Forest Management Act added to the Reserve act more explicit administrative details and now could protect federal lands and regulate watersheds, timber, and mining.

The acts were a very important starting point of the conservation movement, but it one must consider that these are laws about reserves not preserves. Forests were conserved for human use later, not to keep the land in its natural state. These acts were centered on human reasons such as timber demands or for recreational use, not for the sake of the wildlife that resides in the areas and ignoring the possibility of native people living there.