6 Department Circular SIS, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



The timber resources of the Apache, which have practically not 

 been touched by the ax, are estimated to consist of 2,400,000,000 

 board feet of saw timber, of which 75 per cent is western yellow pine. 

 The remainder is made up mostly of Douglas fir, white fir, and 

 spruce. In addition, the south end of the forest has extensive stands 

 of pifion and juniper which contain 300,000 cords of wood. Most 

 of the saw timber is now inaccessible because of its distance from the 

 railroad. For this reason, the present annual cut of about 1 million 

 feet is confined to the timber needed for local consumption by small 

 communities and ranches on or near the forest. In future years, the 

 Apache Forest may be expected to occupy an important place in the 

 timber production of the State. 



Within this forest there are a few flat, treeless areas suitable for 

 the growing of crops. Such lands have been listed in 215 tracts, 

 which have been settled upon by homesteaders. Of the lands which 



Fig. 4. — About oUU,OUO sheep find ranjio on the national forests of Arizona 



have been retained in public ownership, none are considered to have 

 sufficient value for agriculture to warrant alienating them as home- 

 steads. 



A large livestock industry has been developed upon the Apache 

 Forest, and all of the available range is now used under Govern- 

 ment permits. It supports a total of 34.000 cattle and 34,000 sheep, 

 which are owned by 184 permittees, most of whom live on or near 

 the forest. Much of this stock s]:)ends only its summer on the high, 

 cool mountain ranges of the Apache Forest, and is driven to the 

 lower-lying country to the north and south for the winter. In addi- 

 tion, 263 settlers on the forest are allowed to graze nearly 3,000 head 

 of work and milk stock on the forest free of charge. 



Besides its purely commercial value, this forest is of immense im- 

 portance because of its location on the headwaters of many of the 

 streams ultimately running into the Roosevelt Reservoir, which sup- 

 plies irrigation water and power for the Salt River Valley. Upon 

 such an area, therefore, conservative lumbering should be practiced 



