A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 399 



NATIONAL PARKS 



Some 300,000 acres of national park areas located in this basin the 

 Rocky Mountain, the Yellowstone, and the Glacier are involved. 

 Under the park policy of excluding commercial use, watershed con- 

 ditions are being maintained. Cover conditions, which even before 

 the establishment of the parks were not seriously disturbed, are 

 improving. 



INDIAN LANDS 



There is something over a million acres of forest lands in Indian 

 reservations in this drainage. These are subjected to cutting and to 

 grazing. Past missuse on some of these lands has caused deterioration 

 of the cover. The stands have been cut too heavily, fires have been 

 common, and some overgrazing has taken place. In recent years 

 there has been considerable improvement in the cover due to better 

 fire control and to cutting restrictions. More recently, efforts have 

 been made to institute a type of range management similar to that in 

 effect on the national forests. Although this management has not 

 been in effect long enough to bring about marked changes in depleted 

 ranges, it is to be expected as time passes that watershed conditions 

 will gradually improve. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN 



Federal lands in the unreserved public domain are in less fortunate 

 circumstances because they are not given as much care and attention 

 as is accorded other public lands. Many of these are in small tracts 

 so scattered that management is difficult. Efforts at fire control and 

 range and forest management on the unreserved public domain have 

 been made, but in the absence of an organization whose specific duty 

 it is to' cope with the problem, the situation is not satisfactory. On 

 the whole, much of the cover, particularly the minor vegetation, has 

 been seriously depleted with attendant increased surface run-off and 

 erosion. This is particularly marked in the Badlands. 



BADLANDS 



" Badlands" is the name given to rough lands in the plains region, 

 mostly in Montana and in the Dakotas. Something over 10 million 

 acres are involved. Although not covered with a commercial forest, 

 most of the Badlands support a brush and low woodland cover that, 

 if adequately maintained, would probably be highly effective in water- 

 shed protection. Some support only a sparse vegetation of brush, 

 and some only grass or other minor vegetation. Woodland is char- 

 acteristic of the north-facing slopes, and grass of those to the south. 



Many of the Badlands soils are silty loams which, lacking a binding 

 material, virtually melt in the rain. Although much of the eroded 

 material is so fine as to be carried to the Gulf, a part of it is deposited 

 in the lower part of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. ^ Because 

 of the area involved, the extent of the erosion, and the ease with which 

 erosion takes place, this situation is the most critical one in the upper 

 Missouri, and calls for early remedial action. Of the 413 million 

 cubic yards of soil estimated by the War Department as the amount 

 annually carried by the Missouri River into the Mississippi, probably 

 more than half comes from this section. 



