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Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Patterns: Hardrock Mining, Forestry, and Grazing Policy on United States Public Lands, 1870–1985*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Christopher McGrory Klyza
Christopher McGrory Klyza
Affiliation:
Middlebury College
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Extract

From the mid–1800s through the mid–1980s, the federal government initiated programs to manage three types of resources on the lands that it controlled. The discovery of gold in California and elsewhere in the West prompted the first government policy in the 1860s. Debate over the nation's forests began in the 1870s, and a system of national forests to be managed by a federal Forest Service was created in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And in the 1930s, the government finally began to manage the lands no one wanted, its grazing lands. The federal government continues to be an active manager of national resources. Indeed, with control of nearly 30 percent of the nation's land, it is the largest land manager in the country.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in American Political Development , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Fall 1994 , pp. 341 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

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In general, the mining codes in these districts throughout the West were modeled on the California codes. Western state and territorial governments supported these codes, which predated the existence of these governmental entities. For instance, the 1851 Civil Practice Act in California stated that the mining codes would be respected and legally binding in the California courts. The Nevada legislature and courts also acted to support the mining codes in that state. See Ellison 1963, pp. 77–80, 82; Greever 1963, pp. 82–83; Libecap 1978a, pp. 52–154; Paul 1963, pp. 169, 171; Swenson 1968, p. 712.

23. Ellison 1963, pp. 82–85; Hershiser 1911–1912, pp. 146–48, 152–54; Libecap 1978a, pp. 193–202; Libecap 1978b, p. 360; Mayer and Riley 1985, pp. 47–49; Swenson 1968, pp. 713–17.

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32. Although oil and gas exploration and development were also allowed to continue in wilderness areas for nineteen years, this exemption was not as strong as that for hardrock minerals. Oil and gas development required government permits, which could be, and in almost every case have been, denied. Hardrock mineral exploration and claiming could proceed, and did, without prior approval.

As was the case with economic liberalism in the 1860s, the success of the idea of preservationism can be traced to its relationship to the dominant general idea about policy in the 1960s: the support of a more activist government.

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Interestingly, George Julian, a chief congressional opponent of the 1866 Mining Law, wrote in 1883, the “misfortune of this legislation is heightened by the probability of its continuance; for it is not easy to uproot a body of laws once accepted by a people, however mischievous their character. … [this] wretched travesty [of a law may be] permanently engrafted upon half a continent” (as quoted in Leshy 1987, p. 361). Thus far, Julian has been right, though the privilege of economic liberalism has become suspect.

34. Dana, Samuel T. and Fairfax, Sally K., Forest and Range Policy, 2d ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), 41–43Google Scholar, 50–51.

35. 26 Stat. 1095; 16 U.S.C. Section 471 (repealed); Dana and Fairfax 1980, pp. 55–58; Pinchot 1947, pp. 108–10; Yard, Robert S., Our Federal Lands (New York: Scribner's, 1928), 108–11Google Scholar.

36. 30 Stat. 11, 34; 16 U.S.C. Section 475; Dana and Fairfax 1980, pp. 58–62, 91–92; Pinchot 1947, pp. 113–19; Yard 1928, pp. 111–12.

37. Hays 1975, p. 3.

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39. Fox 1985, pp. 121, 129.

40. 33 Stat. 628; 16 U.S.C. Section 472; Dana and Fairfax 1980, pp. 80–81; Hays 1975, pp. 38–45; Pinchot 1947, pp. 198–201, 254–56; Steen, Harold K., The U.S. Forest Service: A History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), 60–61Google Scholar, 71–72.

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42. By relative autonomy, I mean that the Forest Service's actions were constrained by societal and legal factors but that it still had significant discretion within these constraints. Prior to this period, societal and legal factors were weak constraints on the agency's actions.

43. Dana 1956, pp. 179–224.

44. Dana 1956, pp. 208–18.

45. Dana 1956, p. 314.

46. Dana and Fairfax 1980, pp. 108–11, 132; Nash 1982, pp. 182–209.

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48. On clear-cutting, see Clary 1986, pp. 180–94.

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Interestingly, debate over the public lands helped to define the powers of the nascent administrative state. For instance, the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Gratiot (1840) upheld Congress's power to lease (lands for lead mining) as well as sell public lands, thereby establishing a foundation for all future public lands management; United States v. Grimaud (1911) and Light v. United States (1911) legitimized the discretionary use of executive power (regarding the Forest Service's authority to collect grazing fees for the use of national forest lands without a specific act from Congress authorizing it to do so). The congressional debate over the Weeks Act (1911) is also important. (Did the federal government have the constitutional authority to purchase lands for national forests? See United States v. Griffin [1932].)

52. Dana 1956, p. 156; Foss 1960, p. 42; Hays 1975, pp. 60–65; Peffer 1951, pp. 27–30, 72–98.

53. Lowi 1979, pp. 22, 69; McConnell, Grant, Private Power and American Democracy (New York: Random House, 1966), 69Google Scholar, 343 specifically, pp. 200–11 on the Taylor Grazing Act. Although Lowi does not mention grazing in his book, it seems to illustrate his thesis ideally.

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