What the NATIONAL FORESTS Mean to the WATER USER 47 



duced. In the case of sheep, for example, the old method of grazing them 

 in large, compact bodies and bringing them back night after night to the 

 same bedding ground, which proved so injurious to both forage and soil, 

 has been replaced by handling them in smaller, more open bands and by 

 bedding them down wherever night overtakes them. Cattle are prevented 

 from congregating too much by a proper distribution of salt and the devel- 

 opment of watering places at the higher elevations and on the less frequented 

 parts of the range. All stock is kept off of the range until the ground is 

 firm enough not to be cut up by trampling. Where necessary, no grazing 

 is allowed until the grass and other herbs have had a chance to seed. 



By such measures as these the water user is protected, and at the 

 same time the grazing industry is benefited. Under the improved methods 

 the range is, in fact, being built up to a point where it can carry larger 

 numbers of stock than before and still afford protection from the twin 

 dangers of erosion and irregular stream flow. 



In cutting timber on the National Forests, similar precautions are 



taken to see that the interests of the water user are properly protected. 



Destructive lumbering, which too often stripped the 



land and abandoned it to fire, with entire disregard 1 tmber Cutting 



ana rlanung 

 not only of the future timber supply, but also of the 



water supply, is now a thing of the past, so far as the National Forests 

 are concerned. In its place has been substituted a system of manage- 

 ment which assures the preservation of the forest cover and of its pro- 

 tective influence. At the higher elevations, where because of thin soil, 

 steep slopes, and heavy precipitation the preservation of a fairly dense 

 forest cover is particularly important, "protection forests" may be set 

 aside in which little or no cutting is allowed. At lower elevations the 

 amount of cutting that may safely be allowed naturally varies more or 

 less with local conditions. In each case a careful study of the situation 

 is made, and the timber is never thinned below the point of safety. Lum- 

 bering is carried on with the primary object of improving the forest and 

 keeping it continuously productive. So far as possible, new growth is 

 secured by natural reproduction from the old trees left standing. 



Areas burned over before the creation of the National Forests need 

 to be planted to trees. Many difficulties are encountered in this work, 

 but as a result of experiments which the Forest Service has carried on for 



