are implementing the range improvement practices. However, it is not pro- 

 ceeding as rapidly as we would like due to the same problem as was pointed 

 out previously by Dick Kurth. We can't expect a man to spend money on range 

 practices in order that he will lose less money than he is currently losing 

 in the cattle business. The program has been successful due to the fact 

 that people, both rural and urban, are now aware of the rangeland resource 

 and the fact that it does require a special type of management. I consider 

 the program successful in this respect. 



Future problems in eastern Montana - the 18 eastern counties comprise 

 1/3 of the siorface area of Montana or 35 million acres of which 79^ is range- 

 land. We have approximately 93»000 people living in this area. It also con- 

 tains the largest coal reserves in the world. Most of our problems are sim- 

 ilar to those affecting the rest of the state; namely, landowner vs. sports- 

 man, recreationist, subdivider and all other people who wish to use the 

 rangelands. As a Montanan, it seems to me that all of a sudden everyone in 

 this country wants a piece of the action in this state. We are all basic- 

 ally territorial animals and this was exemplified by my conversation with 

 that high school principal a week ago. His question was, "What are we going 

 to do about those out-of-staters breaking up o\ir rangeland?" If you note, 

 he didn't refer to what we as Montanans are doing but he referred specifi- 

 cally to those "outsiders". Although the truth hurts, I noticed one thing 

 during the program yesterday. That is that we as ranchers and the organiza- 

 tions that represent us, have not been getting out and informing and educating 

 the public as to the job of management that we have been doing. 



There is one term which kept recurring yesterday as we talked, and it 

 was "those environmentalists". Lord knows they're not always right, but they 

 are looking in at us from the outside and we need to answer in rebuttal those 

 claims of what we are abusing. We need to use this criticism to improve our- 

 selves. We should also be aware of the fact that there are times when we 

 are wrong. 



We in the 18 county area need some definite answers on the impact of air 

 pollution on our rangeland vegetation and cereal grains. If I believe what 

 I hear, I may be looking at a 20-50^ reduction in forage production due en- 

 tirely to air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels. It seems like 



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