homesteading policy. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 was passed to foster cultivation of timber in arid regions by making available 160 free acres of land to anybody willing to plant trees upon 40 acres of it. However, the new law had numerous loopholes that allowed non-residents to claim land for speculation purposes, and family members to give land to other family members to circumvent formal ownership and avoid taxation. In addition, there was concern for the preservation of watersheds, protection of the forests from fires, and the desire to regulate timber sales. Initiatives such as the Desert Land Act of 1877 were also passed, giving 640 acres of land at $1.25 per acre to anybody willing to irrigate the land within three years. These conditional land contracts allowed groups such as stock ranchers, timber/mining companies, and land speculators to acquire vast acreage of land for little cost or consequence. The Jeffersonian ideal of small-scale land ownership could not be achieved under these circumstances, as monopolization of private lands was occurring at a rapid pace, often spanning 67,000 to million acres per purchase. Despite these transactions, the federal government had secured some large-scale land reserves prior to the General Revision Act's passage. These reserves included Yosemite, secured in 1864 as a permanent trust, as well as two million acres within the Yellowstone Valley in 1872. Upon the General Revision Act's passage in 1891, President Harrison immediately withdrew 1.2 million additional acres from the Yellowstone Valley, the first of an eventual 13 million-acre reserve campaign throughout the Harrison presidency. Early advocates of federal forest reserves included Franklin B. Hough, later the first chief of the United States Division of Forestry, and Harvard botanist George Barrell Emerson, along with other members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS advocated for the commission of a forest protection study, which Minnesota Congressman Mark H. Dunnell proposed in an 1874 bill. Although that bill failed to pass Congress, Dunnell was successful two years later by adding a rider to an existing agriculture appropriations bill. This legislation created the Office of Special Agent for forest research within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wildfires were considered a primary threat to forests, as large expanses of timber had recently burned in fires such as Wisconsin's Peshtigo fire in 1871. Watershed protection was also a major concern, especially in the Adirondacks; supporters of watershed