PROPER CONTROL OF GRAZING ESSENTIAL 235 



Proper Control of Grazing Essential. — Without question 

 grazing can be successfully employed on most wooded areas for 

 the purpose of reducing the danger from fires. It cannot be 

 emphasized too strongly, however, that unless grazing is carefully 

 regulated its beneficial effects may be outweighed by the damage 

 it causes. This damage consists chiefly in the destruction of the 

 young tree growth and the forage stand, and in the increased 

 Hability to serious erosion and floods, followed by the depletion 

 of the soil and watershed. 



Overgrazing and other faulty methods of handhng stock cause 

 damage to tree reproduction of all kinds, especially to the young, 

 tender coniferous seedHngs and the hardwood sprouts, either by 

 browsing or trampling, or by both. There will always be some 

 areas well covered with this class of growth, either from natural 

 reproduction or from hand plantings, from which stock must be 

 excluded long enough to allow the plants to pass beyond the 

 stage in which they are Hable to be appreciably damaged. 

 Serious damage to timber production is almost invariably asso- 

 ciated with the destruction of the more valuable forage plants, 

 leaving only the unpalatable species to reproduce, if, indeed, it 

 does not result in denuding the area of all or virtually all growth. 

 Continued excessive grazing or other mismanagement of the 

 range causes depletion of the soil almost exactly as fire does; 

 that is, it destroys the natural supply of humus and nitrogen. 



It is evident, then, that careful regulation of grazing is neces- 

 sary in using foraging animals to lessen the danger from forest 

 and range fires. Certain strategic locations, as, for instance, 

 high ridges and areas particularly liable to injury by fires, may 

 properly be grazed closely in order to create firebreaks or to 

 lessen the liability of fires. Ordinarily, the aim should be to 

 graze the forage before it dries up and becomes inflammable. 

 This is especially important on areas of high fire hazard. 



Ranges ungrazed because of inaccessibility to stock often 

 afford severe fire nests. Most of the fires on these areas could 

 be prevented or controlled by the construction of trails and by 

 such a development of watering places as would permit the 

 entrance of stock. Wherever the fire hazard is great, stock drive- 



