Morgan Jacobsen wrote an interesting article on the public lands controversy in Utah ("In search of a solution for protecting lands: What Utah can learn from Idaho and Nevada," Aug. 22). Just as interesting would be what Utah could learn from its past. The archives of the Deseret News show this debate is well over 100 years old. Columnists could save a lot of effort and just recycle material from the early 20th century.
In late 1903 and early 1904, the chief forester of the Bureau of Forestry (soon to become the U.S. Forest Service) was in Provo defending the forest reserves (soon to become the national forests). Some locals thought "that the reserves are too large and in some places cover ground where there is no timber." The forester justified the reserves based on use of resources: protection of water supply, grazing lands and timber production. He was being truthful, as Congress actually intended those uses back then. Some argued that the resources would become too reserved and not put to economic use. Apparently, they had some right to be fearful of that. Of course, the Antiquities Act and national monuments led to that same kind of nonuse. The public lands issue is an example of history repeating itself over and over again.
Thomas Straka
Pendleton, South Carolina