A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1529 



Missouri River to the north. These areas are characterized by steep, 

 broken topography, extremely erosible and generally unproductive 

 soil, low annual precipitation, and sparse vegetation ranging from 

 grassland types to stunted, noncommercial tree growth. Much of 

 the area is range rather than true forest land and is included in this 

 report only because of the extent to which it contributes to the silt 

 load of the Mississippi River and its tributaries and because many of 

 the problems involved are common to watershed control on forest 

 ranges generally. Erosion on these areas is great even under normal 

 conditions and has been accentuated through misuse, largely 

 overgrazing. 



As a result of the low productivity of the soil, private ownership 

 has not been attracted to this land. A high percentage of the area, 

 except in Texas and Oklahoma, is in the public domain. 



Erosion control here will be particularly difficult. Fire should be 

 completely excluded, timber cutting should be restricted to dead and 

 down timber or very light selective cutting at most, grazing should be 

 greatly reduced and on many areas completely excluded, and where 



it is allowed the season of use should be carefully determined. Arti- 

 ficial revegetation with grass, brush, and trees will have to be studied 

 and used where feasible. Finally, special engineering works to stop 

 stream silting will have to be devised. Much research will be required 

 on each phase. 



Because of the restrictions in use required, obviously the situation 

 can be corrected only under public ownership. This would mean 

 acquiring lands now in private ownership, by purchase or exchange, 

 and blocking them up with public lands into suitable administrative 

 units. Federal rather than State control seems logical, because the 

 silt contributions from these areas to the Missouri and Mississippi 

 Rivers are of national rather than local concern. For example, the 

 silt contribution to the Missouri River which comes from the Breaks 

 in Montana is of little economic consideration in Montana, but is a 

 real factor in States farther down the river. Placing the public 

 domain under administration, as discussed in the section of this 

 report entitled " Public Domain and Other Federal Forest Land", 

 should result in active efforts toward solution of the watershed prob- 

 lem of the Breaks and Bad Lands. At best it will not soon be solved. 



PACIFIC SLOPE DENSE FORESTS 



Climatic conditions on certain areas of the Pacific slope are such 

 as to cause the establishment of extremely dense forests with an 

 unusually rank understory of small trees, ferns, and other low vege- 

 tation. This condition is especially marked in the redwood forest of 

 northwestern California, in the Douglas fir and the fog-belt forests of 

 western Oregon and Washington, and in the white-pine zone of the 

 northern Rocky Mountain region. Undoubtedly, in a virgin con- 

 dition these dark forests exert the maximum influence on stream 

 flow and on soil stability. 



Damage by fire is excessive. Particularly in the Douglas fir and 

 white-pine zones, these forests present one of the most difficult prob- 

 lems in forest-fire protection. Acceptable protection standards have 

 not been met even on the national forests. Fortunately, a new 

 vegetative cover is rapidly established even following complete 



