588 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



hired labor of low quality. The burdens of ranch work and other 

 business interests often detract from the interest taken by permittees 

 in their stock while on the summer range. Tto inevitably leads to 

 confusion and difficulty in dealing with individuals other than the 

 owners. Despite these handicaps, real progress has been made in 

 obtaining the cooperation of the stock owner in the systematic manage- 

 ment of his allotment. 



The successful application of plans, however, and the development 

 of the resource, is largely dependent upon the construction of improve- 

 ments and artificial reseeding of important areas, for which adequate 

 funds are not available. Though considerable progress has been 

 made, largely through cooperation by the permittees, in the erection 

 of stock control works, such as drift fences, water developments, 

 driveways, trails, corrals, and salt troughs, and in the eradication of 

 poisonous plants, there is still over $1,250,000 worth of this sort of 

 work to do. Further, as a means of preventing heavy damage to the 

 range itself, an estimated further expenditure of $750,000 is needed 

 during a 10-year period to control the activities of destructive rodents 

 on 5 million acres where heavy infestation occurs. 



One of the greatest handicaps, if not the greatest, is the insufficiency 

 of scientific data on which management can be based. There is 

 need to know more about the extent to which the important species 

 of vegetation can be grazed without injury; how depleted ranges can 

 be restored most effectively and most rapidly under use; what adjust- 

 ments in normal stocking of ranges must be made because of recurring 

 droughts, or critical timber, game, or watershed situations; and many 

 related questions. These all involve intensive research, pending the 

 result of which we must of necessity resort to trial and test. 



The use of the forage resources of the national forests has a value 

 beyond its worth to the livestock industry and the communities that 

 industry supports, and beyond the revenue accruing to the Treasury 

 from permit charges. There is a very real contribution to fire 

 prevention and control through removal of grass which, when dry, is 

 easily inflammable and spreads fire rapidly. Countless instances 

 attest the value of heavily grazed stock driveways, for example, as 

 fire lines, and of the greater ease of control of fire on grazed areas 

 than on ungrazed areas. There is also the advantage of checking 

 herbaceous growth which competes with tree seedlings for moisture 

 and light. 



No phase of the national-forest enterprise proves more conclusively 

 the worth of regulation and management than that dealing with range 

 management. Out of an uncontrolled and often chaotic condition of 

 early occupation of the ranges has come regulated use. Many ranges 

 which were once tramped into dust by sheep before midsummer are 

 now grazed moderately and left in the fall with the making of next 

 year's crop intact. A long standing and very troublesome problem 

 of damage to forest reproduction over large areas in Arizona mainly 

 from range overstocking has been largely overcome and the forests 

 are now replenishing while livestock still use the area. Much progress 

 has been made in stopping early erosive processes. 



As a general summary of the results of management, it may be 

 stated that, while there is still much to learn and to be accomplished, 

 a poor range condition is the exception rather than the rule as it was 

 at one time. The main problem in range management for some time 

 to come will be the healing of "sore spots" here and there. 



