586 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



handling of the utilization of the timber resources in the interest of 

 permanent productivity and both local and national public welfare; 

 silvicultural practices which do much to improve the stands and, 

 with minor exceptions, obtain regeneration; improvement of logging 

 methods to more fully protect young growth; the possibilities of 

 selective logging in improving seed -tree reservation; the promise of 

 improved slash-disposal methods to benefit both the expenditure 

 budget and the silvicultural objectives. After discounting for the 

 mistakes inevitable under the trial and error necessitites of a new 

 enterprise, and weighing the present and prospective handicaps, it 

 may be fairly said that American forestry has given a good account 

 of itself on the national forests, even though it has a long way yet to go. 



FORAGE USE 



When the national forests were created a heavy use of their forage 

 resources was already established under the prevailing custom of 

 unrestricted use of public lands for grazing range livestock. This use 

 was wholly unregulated and involved a mixture of well-established 

 occupation by nearby ranchers and more transient tenure by non- 

 resident herds of cattle or bands of sheep driven in from distant 

 winter ranges. There was a good deal of battling among users to 

 maintain their asserted rights. 



The Forest Service set up a system of controlled use, under permit, 

 giving priority to those longest established on the ranges and most 

 dependent on the national-forest grazing resources by virtue of ad- 

 jacent home ranches. At all times the small local stock raiser, owning 

 his own ranch, has been favored. 



Out of this system has grown a large degree of stability in the use 

 of the national-forest range resources. Within or adjacent to almost 

 every ranger district may be found thriving agricultural communities 

 whose prosperity is mainly dependent upon the stable production of 

 livestock. Climate, soil, and location combine to make this the most 

 profitable form of agriculture. In many, if not most cases, it is the 

 only practicable form. Small in area, the farms within these com- 

 munities are incapable of sustained production without the aid of 

 complementary ranges lying inside the national forests. It is these 

 ranges that provide feed during the season of the year when culti- 

 vated crops on the farms must make their growth. It is also these 

 ranges with their power to produce high-quality lamb and beef at a 

 nominal expense that offset the more expensive production and feeding 

 of cultivated crops and make the whole operation profitable. Without 

 the use of these ranges farm lands would have to be abandoned and 

 community life disappear. The fact that more than 4K million acres 

 of improved farm land and 22 million acres of grazing land are used 

 in connection with forest permits emphasizes this statement. 



The fact that the use of national-forest range is made dependent 

 upon the ownership of ranch property of an area and character 

 suitable for farms induces a degree of stability in the business not 

 found in any other part of the range livestock industry. Owners 

 may and often do go out of the business, but the improved lands and 

 farms remain productive under new ownership. 



About 83 million acres of national-forest land are used by domestic 

 stock for an average period of approximately 5 months. Owing to 



