8 REFORESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



which will produce only cordwood to some of the finest and most 

 valuable forests in ihe world. Hundreds of species of trees grow 

 under the conditions presented by almost every kind of soil and 

 climate. 



From the best information available an effort has been made to 

 classify the lands within the National Forests. The figures given, 

 though necessarily approximate, fairly represent existing conditions. 

 Of utterly barren land there are within the National Forests approxi- 

 mately 15,000,000 acres. This consists of 4 : 000,000 acres of rocks, 

 cliffs, and arroyos, and 11,000,000 acres of unproductive land above 

 timber line. Of open grass land, there are 16,000,000 acres ; of mature 

 timber, 60,000,000 acres ; and of young tree growth, 40,000,000 acres. 

 But of chief interest is the denuded and otherwise unproductive land 

 capable of growing trees, which at present is either bare or covered 

 with brush or other worthless growth. This aggregates about 

 15,000,000 acres, of which approximately one-half will, under proper 

 management, reforest naturally within a reasonable time, leaving 

 7,500,000 acres which must be artificially sown or planted. This is 

 not all. When natural regeneration fails, as in blanks, or where a 

 forest not yet producing seed needs to be increased in density, or 

 where some species is to be replaced by a better one, and this can not 

 be done by natural reproduction, artificial reforestation must step in. 



The task of reforesting this enormous area is rendered still more 

 difficult by the complexity of the problem. Much of the experience 

 gained in tree planting in the East or on the prairies of the Middle 

 West has proved useless or misleading in establishing tree growth in 

 the high watersheds of the Rocky Mountains, the semiarid ranges of 

 the Great Basin, and the parched foothills of California. The 

 greater portion of the area which it seems advisable to reforest con- 

 sists of old burns, where recurring fires have completely ruined the 

 former forest, leaving a scanty, sterile, and dried-out soil, often lit- 

 tered with charred down timber and stumps. Some of these areas 

 have grown up to brush, some to fern, and some to grass and fire- 

 weed. Many have been eroded to such an extent that it is doubtful 

 if they can ever be made to bear trees again, while there are large 

 areas where all the vegetable soil has been burned. Among the 

 easiest to reforest are those which have recently suffered from light 

 fires, so that the mineral soil is exposed, but which are not so badly 

 eroded or grown up to brush as to prevent tree seed from germinating. 



NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 



Approximately 90,000 acres within the National Forests are being- 

 cut over each year in the course of timber sales. Some of this is 

 cut clean, but much is only partly cleared. Practically all of this 



