1894   Congress and President Cleveland begin continuous funding of water-resources investigations by the USGS in 28 U.S. Statutes at Large, 398 (August 18)

1902   Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt establish a reclamation fund in 32 Stat. L., 388 (June 17)

Reclamation Service is established in the USGS (July 8) by Roosevelt's request of June 20

1907   Reclamation Service is made an independent agency (March 9) in the Interior Department (RS is renamed the Bureau of Reclamation on June 30, 1923)

1904   Congress and President Roosevelt fund in (33 Stat. L., 33) USGS testing of U.S. coals and lignites at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition

1905   Congress and Roosevelt fund USGS testing of structural materials ("stone, clays, cements")

1907   USGS founds a Technologic Branch (April 2)

1910   USGS testing of mineral fuels and structural materials is transferred to the new Bureau of Mines established in the Interior Department by 36 Stat. L. 369 (May 16); structural-materials testing then passes to the National Bureau of Standards

1925   President Coolidge's Executive Order (June 4) transfers (July 1) the USGS Division of Mineral Resources to the Bureau of Mines, where it later becomes Minerals Information. Mineral-leasing functions pass to the USGS, where they are merged with the agency's land-classification units to form the Conservation Branch (USGS Order 115, July 1).

1996   Congress and President Clinton disestablish the Bureau of Mines by 110 Stat. L. 33 (January 26) and 110 Stat. L. 1321-167 and 1321-168 (April 26). Functions pass to the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior. The Bureau of Mines' minerals-information program is transferred to the USGS.

1879   Congress and President Hayes establish in 20 Stat. L., 394 (March 3) the USGS in part to classify scientifically the Nation's public lands

1908   USGS founds a Land Classification (LC) Board (December 18) to aid Interior's General Land Office (GLO, established in 1812 by 2 Stat. L., 716); the LC Board is raised to branch status in 1912 and funded by assessment until FY 1918.

1922   LC Board is renamed the Land Classification Branch (April 1)

1925   USGS Order 115 (July 1) establishes the Conservation Branch by combining the LC Branch with the USGS Water Resources Branch's Division of Land Classification and the Bureau of Mines Mineral- and Oil-Leasing Divisions transferred to the USGS by President Coolidge's Executive Order on June 4. The ExO also transfers the Bureau of Mines and the USGS Mineral Resources Division to the Commerce Department. Mines returns to Interior in 1934.

1934   Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt establish the public grazing lands in 48 Stat. L., 1269 (June 28)

1935   Agricultural Division of USGS Conservation Division is transferred to form Interior's Division of Grazing by Harold Ickes' Secretarial Order (March 21)

1939   Ickes' Secretarial Order 1416 (August 26) reorganizes the Division of Grazing and restyles it the Grazing Service

1946   Congress and President Truman establish the Bureau of Land Management in 60 Stat. L., 1100 (Reorganization Plan 3 of May 16, effective July 16) by combining the Grazing Service, GLO, and other units

1982   James Watt's Secretarial Order 3071 (January 19, modified May 10 and 26) transfers the USGS Conservation Division, several USGS programs in marine geology, and BLM offshore operations, to the newly established Minerals Management Service

1881   Commissioner of Agriculture establishes a Division of Forestry; Agriculture becomes a Department in 1889 in 25 Stat. L., 659 (February 9)

1891   Congress and President Harrison authorize the creation of forest reserves in 26 Stat. L., 1103 (March 3) and place them under control of the Interior Department's GLO

1897   Congress and President McKinley authorize in 30 Stat. L., 34 (June 4) the USGS to conduct for GLO boundary, classification, and topographic surveys of the forest reserves established by Executive Proclamation

1905   Congress and President Roosevelt transfer the forest reserves from the Interior Department to the Agriculture Department and its Bureau of Forestry (elevated and renamed in 1901) in 33 Stat. L., 628 (February 1)

1905   USGS retains as a separate line item the topographic and special surveys of the national forests until it is combined in 1918 with the general line item for USGS topographical surveys

1907   Bureau of Forestry is renamed the Forest Service in 34 Stat. L., 1269 (March 4)