534 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



types on the experimental range. The number of cattle that have 

 been grazed over the 17-year period have varied widely on the outside, 

 losses have been far greater, calf crops have been much lower, the cost 

 of producing calves has been greater, and their sale value less than 

 on the experimental range. 



Depletion of the under-story vegetation had reached such a serious 

 stage and soil erosion had become so active on local areas of the 

 woodland and brush types before creation of the Tonto National 

 Forest that, even with regulation of grazing for the past 27 years, 

 it has not been possible to arrest the deterioration. The seriousness 

 of such depletion is evident when it is realized that the continuing 

 erosion is greatly adding to the silt problem of the Roosevelt Reser- 

 voir, the principal storage basin of the Salt River reclamation project 

 in Arizona. 



The governor's special flood commission 3a concluded that the 

 destructive floods of northern Utah in 1923 and 1930 (and which 

 have continued in 1931 and 1932) were largely the result of the 

 depletion of the vegetation on critical parts of the mountain water- 

 shed largely through overgrazing and fires and to some extent over- 

 cutting of timber. The evidence, from further intensive cooperative 

 study of the cause of these floods by the Utah State Land Board and the 

 Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, points directly 

 to denudation of relatively small areas on private lands near the 

 headwaters of the affected streams. The damage in this heavily 

 populated part of Utah has amounted to well over $1,000,000 and 

 several lives have been lost. 



On the Kaibab National Forest and Game Preserve, depletion 

 from overgrazing by game has become pronounced. The 1931 investi- 

 gative committee made up of representatives of several national 

 conservation, wild life, and livestock associations, and Federal and 

 State agencies, concluded that the area is not now producing more 

 than 10 percent of the nutritious forage that it once supported. 

 Although the numbers of domestic livestock grazing on the area in 

 1913 have been reduced about 85 percent, the large increase that has 

 occurred in the mule deer population is causing a continued deteriora- 

 tion of forage, especially on the winter range, which has meant 

 starvation losses among the deer. 



MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS 



The conditions on western forest ranges as cited above show the defi- 

 nite need for development and application of management that will, 

 through rehabilitation of the valuable subordinate forest vegetation 

 and stabilization of range use, permit effective coordination of grazing 

 with the watershed protection, timber production, recreation, and 

 wild-life services of forest lands. Restoration of depleted forest 

 ranges would ultimately not only benefit the livestock owners, 

 but contribute to more satisfactory watershed protection, aid in 

 protection of timber reproduction from grazing damage, and make 

 available more abundant feed for wild life. 



3a" Torrential Floods in Northern Utah, 1930." Report of Special Flood Commission. Utah Agr. 

 Expt. Sta. Circ. 92. 1931. 



