These are: The Pacific Reserve (967,680 acres) of Washington; the Cascade (4,492,800 acres), Bull Run (142,080 acres), and Ashland (18,560 acres) Reserves of Oregon; the Sierra (4,096,000 acres), San Gabriel (555,520 acres), San Bernardino (18,560 acres), and Trabuco Cañon (49,920 acres) Reserves of California; the Yellowstone Park Reserve (1,239,040 acres) of Wyoming; the South Platte (683,520 acres), Plum Creek (179,200 acres), White River (1,198,080 acres), Battlement Mesa (858,240 acres), and Pike's Peak (184,320 acres) Reserves of Colorado; the Grand Cañon (1,851,520 acres) Reserve of Arizona; the Pecos River (311,040 acres) Reserve of New Mexico, and the Afognak Reserve (area unknown) of Alaska.
The establishment of these reserves did not excite any special approval or disapproval of the policy, except as some local interest was affected favorably or unfavorably. In the latter case little attention was paid to it by the parties directly concerned, as there was no real protection of the reserves or public forests by patrol, and the cutting of timber and destruction by fires went on as before. It was not until the executive proclamations of February 22, 1897, were made that great opposition was developed in the Northwestern States, in which many of the reserves were situated. These proclamations, based upon the recommendation of the Forestry Commission of the National Academy of Sciences, established thirteen forest reservations, containing an aggregate area of 21,379,840 acres. Their names, locations, areas, etc., are given in the following table:
| Name of Forest Reserve. |
Location. | Estimated area (acres). |
Object. |
| Black Hills | The central portion of the Black Hills, of South Dakota. | 967,680 | To protect and make permanently productive this isolated forest, which is essential to adjacent mining and farming interests. |
| Big Horn | Slopes of the Big Horn Mountains in northern central Wyoming. | 1,127,680 | To protect the water supply of streams important to farming in adjacent regions. |
| Teton | Adjacent to and south of the Yellowstone Park timber reserve. | 829,440 | To protect the water supply of streams important to farming in adjacent regions. |
| Flathead | Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, Montana, from the Great Northern Railroad to the international boundary. | 1,382,400 | On the eastern slope to make the forests permanently productive for mining, and to protect the headwaters of tributaries of the Missouri. On the western slope, to protect cultivated valleys from floods. |
| Lewis and Clark | Both slopes of the continental divide in Montana, from near the line of the Great Northern Railroad southward nearly to the forty-seventh degree of latitude. | 2,926,080 | To protect the sources of the Missouri essential to irrigation, to prevent floods, and to preserve the forest for intelligent development of its values. |
