RANGE IMPROVEMENTS. 13 



this region. The strong opposition of the cattlemen, together with 

 the long feeding season, has also prevented sheep from gaining an 

 entrance to any appreciable extent. Again, the cattlemen them- 

 selves have been limited in the number of cattle they could run on a 

 range by the quantity of hay for winter feeding they could raise 

 on their irrigated ranches in the river and creek valleys. The 

 Okanogan ranges will last for a number of years, but as the country 

 is gradually settled up these grazing lands will eventually suffer the 

 same fate as all other grazing lands in the State, unless some system 

 can be devised for their protection. 



The area of free range in the mountains is also rapidly decreasing. 

 The creation of two large forest reserves in the Cascades — the Wash- 

 ington Forest Reserve in the northern part and the Mount Rainier 

 Forest Reserve in the southern part— has greatly reduced the free 

 mountain range. While, of course, stock is not entirely prohibited 

 from these areas, the number allowed on them is far less than was 

 accustomed to graze there before the reserves were created. This 

 restriction has naturally resulted in a very crowded condition of the 

 stock in the summer pastures outside of the reserves, and at the rate 

 at which the grass was being taken a couple of years ago it looked 

 as though these areas would soon be as badty devastated as the lower 

 range lands. However, within the last three years the timber com- 

 panies have been buying up large tracts, part of which they are 

 leasing to cattlemen for five-year periods, while no stock is allowed 

 on the remainder. At the same time, in the more accessible areas, 

 where the grazing season is long enough to make it profitable to do so, 

 the stockmen have been purchasing large tracts of this summer range. 

 These purchases on the part of the timbermen and the stockmen 

 living in the near vicinity have resulted in almost entirely shutting 

 out nomadic stock from their summer range. 



RANGE IMPROVEMENTS. 



The purchasing of the range lands of the State is greatly simplify- 

 ing the problem of range improvement. The instant that the stock- 

 man has fenced his land he is in a position to protect it from all 

 outside interference, and can control the number of stock allowed on it. 

 Instead of following the old sj^stem of grabbing all that he can before 

 some one else gets it, he will try to use his grazing land so that it will 

 yield him the highest results from year to }^ear. 



WINTER PASTURES. 



In the true arid region, where sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is 

 the prevailing vegetation, fencing and protecting the land from over- 

 grazing during that season of the year when the native forage plants 



