AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 243 



herder, the cattleman, all seemed to be in irreparable 

 conflict. Happily, however, through the efforts of 

 Mr. Gifford Pinchot some of these matters are being 

 settled in an amicable way. 



It has been my good fortune to have spent some 

 time in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Wy- 

 oming, Utah, and Montana, partly to investigate some 

 of these problems and partly as a layman to enjoy the 

 benefits of the mountain air and to study the flora. 



What were some of the conditions in the great pas- 

 ture fields of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent re- 

 gions from 1897 to 1901 ? 



The cattlemen were dissatisfied because their ranges 

 were more or less injured, the irrigator complained 

 of lack of water. The sheepmen alone entered no 

 general complaints except where the competition was 

 too strong among themselves. The open ranges which 

 had offered abundant opportunities at first became 

 poorer and poorer and the sheep had to seek greener 

 fields in the mountains during the summer. What 

 was more natural than that they should make use of 

 the forest reserves, where in small parks and meadows 

 grew an abundance of nutritious grasses. When the 

 permits were first given it was supposed that grazing 

 would be confined to the parks and meadows. But the 

 spirit of this regulation was probably never adhered to, 

 since the competition among sheepmen was so strong 

 that they had to seek all kinds of feed for fear of their 

 flocks reaching the point of starvation in some cases. 

 It was my privilege to examine three of the forest 

 reserves, the Uintah, Big Horn, and Bitter Root. 



The Bitter Root forest reserve, in Montana, is a 

 ragged range containing a large amount of timber 

 and several important streams, the water of which is 

 used to irrigate the fertile fields in Montana and Idaho. 



