What the National Forests Mean to Montana 9 



ally at lower elevations than the national-forest ranges, and there- 

 fore constitute the natural feeding grounds for livestock at the be- 

 ginning and end of the grazing period. In many places they ad- 

 join and form an integral part of the national-forest ranges. This 

 fact, together with a recognition of the value of regulation of range 

 use, has led to a demand in many places to have outside ranges added 

 to the national forests. 



The aim of national-forest range administration is to build up 

 and maintain at the highest point the productive capacity of the 

 lands, and along with this to stabilize the livestock industry and 

 promote settlement. Therefore the range is not allotted to the 

 highest bidder, but preference is given to established users who own 

 improved ranch property dependent on the range. The best use of 

 the public ranges is in connection with farm and ranch develop- 

 ment. Unless there is correlation of both national-forest ranges and 

 public ranges outside the boundaries, with range development, the 

 livestock industry can not realize the greatest measure of pros- 

 perity. 



At present the national forests contain large areas of public range 

 under stabilized use. With 11,250,000 acres of land available for 

 grazing, they have about 13 per cent of the cattle and horses and 

 86 per cent of the sheep grazed in Montana, or about 160,000 cattle 

 and horses, and 773,000 sheep. On much of the land timber and for- 

 age are intermixed. Grazing of such land, when properly regulated, 

 does not conflict with the growing of tree crops, but on the contrary 

 reduces the fire risk by lessening the inflammable material on the 

 ground. 



Although the timber resources of the national forests in Montana 

 have been developed only to a limited degree, the grazing resources 

 are almost wholly utilized. In fact, the demand for range on the 

 forests is far greater than the capacity. 



Cooperation between stockmen is supplanting the old idea of 

 every man for himself. Very often a cattle range is assigned to a 

 group of stockmen to be used in common by them. Each permittee 

 turns on this range the number of animals his permit allows, and all 

 the stock share the benefits of common watering and salting places 

 and other range improvements. Cooperative herding and shipping 

 is generally practiced under these conditions. Sheep range is di- 

 vided into units of the right size for the individual bands. Al- 

 though bands are usually confined to the individual range allotted to 

 them, it is not uncommon for a number of small owners to pool their 

 stock in a community band for the summer season. 



In 1924 the average number of stock for each permittee was 69 

 cattle and horses and 1,594 sheep. 



Before range can be most effectively utilized, it is necessary to 

 know such things as the number and kind of animals a certain area 

 can support and the season when grazing may be permitted without 

 injury to the land or to forage plants. To this end extensive surveys 

 are being made as fast as funds permit. These surveys are nothing 

 more than detailed inventories of the grazing resources, carefully 

 recorded in a systematic manner to form the basis of a management 

 plan or scheme which aims to allow the maximum use consistent 

 with the annual production of forage plants. 



