National Forest Resources of Utah 



17 



RANGE RESOURCES 



Grazing and 

 Tree Growing 

 Can Exist To- 

 gether. 



The Forests of 

 Utah Support 

 Large Herds — 

 The Ownership 

 Is Widely Dis- 

 tributed. 



In any State that has as much open land within national forest 

 boundaries as Utah, grazing naturally assumes a position of great 

 importance. Contrary to popular belief, properly 

 regulated grazing and timber production are not 

 mutually exclusive. Sometimes, it is true, condi- 

 tions are such that it is necessary to restrict grazing 

 on limited areas in order to get adequate forest 

 reproduction, but as soon as the young trees are sizable enough to be 

 sate from animal trampling or browsing, grazing can again be allowed 

 (fig. 11). 



When the size of the national forests in Ltah is taken into con- 

 sideration, the proportional number of livestock grazed there each 

 summer is greater 

 than in any of the 

 surrounding States. 

 Figure 11 shows how 

 important sheep 

 and cattle grazing 

 is in the forests of 

 Utah. Some 157.000 cattle and 

 horses and 750,000 sheep depend 

 on the national forests for forage. 

 In 1923, 28 per cent of the cattle 

 in the State and 32 per cent of 

 the sheep had summer range upon 

 these forests (fig. 12). Not only 

 were the totals of admitted cattle 

 and sheep large considering the 

 national forest area in the State, 

 but the number of owners was 

 exceptionally large. In Utah 6,480 

 permits to graze cattle upon the 

 national forests were issued, where- 

 as in no other State did the number of permittees exceed 4,000. In 

 addition 1,780 permits were issued ior grazing sheep on Utah 

 national forests. This was more than twice the number in any 

 other State. The approximate value of these herds of cattle and 

 flocks of sheep was S10.000.000. 



Although not always thought of in connection with national forests, 

 forage is one of their important resources (fig. 13). It is obvious 

 that all the resources of the land within the national 

 Is forests should be used to the best advantage, and 

 that if grazing were not allowed a tremendous 

 economic loss would result. On the other hand, forage is so tied 

 in with other forest resources — watershed protection and timber pro- 

 duction in particular — that unregulated grazing, such as exists on the 

 public domain, is not permitted on the national forests, as the risk of 

 destroying these related resources is far too great. The national 

 forest grazing regulations have two main purposes: (1) To con- 

 serve the range and other resources of the national forests, and 

 (2) so to distribute grazing privileges that they may be of maximum 

 public benefit. 



100264°— 26 3 



Fig. 11.— Map of Western States showing graz- 

 ing on the national forests. Compare this map 

 with Figure 2, showing national forest areas in 

 each State. Black circles indicate cattle and 

 horses; white ones, sheep and goats; figures, 

 thousands of stock 



Grazing 

 Regulated. 



