WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE ot 
quality, and availability of timber now standing on these lands; the 
rate of depletion through cutting, fire, isects, disease, and other 
causes; the current and probable future rate of timber growth and 
the productive capacity of our forest area; and the present and prob- 
able future requirements for forest products in the different parts of 
the country by all classes of consumers, including many major indus- 
tries. It includes analysis of the relation of these findings to one 
another and to other related social and economic factors as a basis for 
formulating policies, principles, and plans of forest-land management 
and use, both public and private. 
F-253655 
Figure 24.—Treating poles from the Wasatch National Forest, Utah. 
RANGE INVESTIGATIONS 
Range research furnishes the basis for sound management of forest 
and other range lands. Its objectives are to secure and supply 
Federal, State, and private agencies with basic information needed to 
perpetuate and improve all range-land values. 
Range research is being carried on at the regional forest and range 
experiment stations in the West and in Washington. It is concerned 
primarily with three broad phases: 
(1) Grazing-management studies, which aim to determine the graz- 
ing capacity and proper seasonal use of the various types of range, 
develop ways and means of maintaining and increasing forage and 
livestock production, improve methods of handling livestock on the 
range, control losses from poisonous plants, and to harmonize grazing 
with watershed protection, timber production, fire protection, wildlife, 
and other land values. 
(2) Range-forage investigations, which involve the collection and 
analysis of information on the identity, distribution, life histories, and 
forage value, watershed, and other values of range plants. 
