Ficure 19.—This area was cut over years ago, seeded to pasture, and repeatedly burned. 
F 348208 
It has now been claimed by bracken and 1s practically 
worthless for pasture 
no palatability to livestock, far outnumber succu- 
lent species among the understory plants. On the 
logged-off land and burns, where there is more of 
the succulent herbage, the rough topography, large 
quantities of down timber and other debris, and 
the rank growth of shrubs make the movement of 
livestock difficult. Grazing is therefore meager in 
the virgin and the dense second-growth forests, and 
very limited on old burns and recently logged land. 
In the higher mountains, however, chiefly within 
the national forests, numerous meadows, subalpine- 
type glades, and grassy hillsides and ridges afford 
excellent and largely used summer range. During 
the period 1925-35, approximately 14,000 cattle 
and 130,000 sheep grazed such areas on the national 
forests each season, and the grazing fees collected 
averaged approximately $20,000 a year. 
A number of attempts to use cut-over Douglas-fir 
land for livestock range have been temporarily 
successful, but as a general rule the results have not 
justified this practice on any considerable scale. 
The possibility of converting cut-over land to per- 
manent grazing use has been the subject of con- 
siderable controversy and study. Certainly much 
of this land because of failure to restock to conifers 
78 
and because of unstable ownership is not now filling 
an economic use. Unquestionably portions of it 
through seeding can be converted to permanent 
pasture economically, on other portions grazing can 
be practiced without seeding for a few years with- 
out damaging future use for forestry. The use of 
fire to convert forest land to grazing should be care- 
fully controlled (9). The guiding principle in 
determining the future use of cut-over forest lands 
should be to put them to highest use. There is a 
dearth of physical and economic facts necessary for 
an impartial decision between forestry and grazing 
on much of this land. Some of it obviously suited 
for one use or the other. Gradually, scientific 
research by private, State, and Federal agencies and 
practical experience are supplying the answers to 
some of the questions; others are unanswered. 
An early solution to this entire problem of land use 
is urgent. 
If these areas are not reburned for about 3 to 5 
years, other shrubby species such as salal, Oregon- 
grape, rose, hazel, oceanspray, willow, and elder- 
berry enter the vegetative type. Broadleaf tree 
species such as bigleaf maple and red alder appear, 
and along with conifer seedlings soon dominate the 
