FREE USE OF TIMBER AND STONE

1. The matter is a privilege, and not a right. It may be refused to any person.

2. Who can get timber under free-use provisions of law: It is usually granted to settlers, farmers, prospectors, and others residing within or in the neighborhood of a forest reserve.

3. Who can not get it: it is refused to corporations, companies, sawmill parties, and owners of large establishments, who require larger quantities and are expected to purchase; and to nonresidents of the State in which the reserve is located.

4. How much is given, and by whom: Permits for an amount not exceeding $20 in stumpage value may be granted by the forest supervisor. Permits for a larger amount, and within the stumpage value of $100, are granted only by the Secretary of the Interior.

5. How often the same person can apply: Not oftener than once a year.

6. How long a permit holds good: Six months from the date when it was issued; or less time, in the discretion of the forest supervisor.

7. What can be obtained: All kinds of timber; generally dry firewood, dry poles and logs; also, if really needed, green timber.

8. How obtained:

(a) Application must be made to the forest supervisor.

(b) Blank form of application is furnished by the forest officers, and is filled out and signed by the applicant. (If necessary, the forest officer will lend assistance in filling out the blank application.)

(c) The timber must be located by a forest officer before any cutting is done.

9. Terms of this privilege:

(a) Only the timber applied for can be cut. For instance, no green timber may be taken if dry wood is applied for.

(b) Only so much can be cut as was applied for; and it must be measured, either standing or in the pile, before being hauled away.

(c) No unmarked live timber can be cut.

(d) There must be no cutting across the line of the area assigned. Cutting across the line is trespass.

(e) The rules about cleaning up tops and brush must be obeyed. The cutting area must be left in good, clean condition.

(f) The rules, generally, governing forest reserves must be observed.

(g) The wood, timber, or material derived from it is to be used only at the place stated in the application. The use of it elsewhere, and especially the sale of it, makes the cutting a trespass, and the applicant becomes liable to suit and is always debarred thereafter from the privilege of free use.

(h) The cutting of the timber by a local mill is permissible; but the sawing must be paid for in cash, and can not be done on shares. Moreover, the sawing and hauling of the lumber must be done in a manner required by the forest officer, and in such way as to enable him to determine whether or not the timber and lumber are really used in the place and manner promised in the application.

(i) In placing a valuation on timber given under the "free-use" act, $1 per M for timber, green or dry, and 25 cents per cord for fuel wood will be the minimum price considered.

(k) Applications for "shakes," etc., involving a wasteful use of timber, will be refused wherever a more economical utilization and satisfactory cleaning up of the tops and lops is not guaranteed.

10. In case of emergency, where needy persons require immediate relief in the form of a load of dry firewood, the supervisor has authority to grant such privilege without marking or measuring the material beyond assigning to the applicant the particular area where to cut this material; all cases of this kind to appear in the usual monthly report.

11. The "free-use" permit being considered a very important one, forest officers will not fail to deal with these cases promptly and justly, and will at all times lend assistance in making out applications and otherwise assisting deserving applicants.