management. In 1960, a committee from seven 

 professional agricultural societies proposed that 

 a census be made of the Nation's grazing lands 

 as to their size, scope, importance, and use. 

 This proposal was not carried out. Similarly, 

 efforts within the Federal Government to find a 

 universally accepted measure of range produc- 

 tivity were unsuccessful. 



In 1961 the Secretaries of the Interior and 

 Agriculture were directed by the Senate Com- 

 mittee on Appropriations to initiate a trial 

 program of appraising range on public land.^ 

 The subsequent report presented the need for 

 an appraisal that would yield estimates of the 

 total situation on public land range. It also 

 suggested the need for assembling information 

 for the Nation's entire acreage of grazed land 

 — range and pasture. These recommendations 

 were not implemented. 



A maior undertaking by the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture under the leadership of 

 the Soil Conservation Service was the National 

 Inventory of Soil and Water Conservation 

 Needs of 1958, updated in 1967. This inventory 

 developed information about the use and the 

 conservation needs of the Nation's private 

 rangelands. 



The agencies administering Federal range- 

 lands assembled information in response to 

 requests by the Public Land Law Reviev/ Com- 

 mission. While contributing substantively to 

 knowledge about the Nation's range, the report 

 includes only the Federal lands.- 



Range research needs have been reviewed, 

 research priorities set, and changes recom- 

 mended to meet present and future demand. 

 Focus of range research on an ecosystem ap- 

 proach has been recommended. However, plan- 

 ning for range research, and planning for allo- 

 cation of resources to management of the range 

 both have been hampered by lack of up-to-date 

 resource information on a truly national scope. 



THE STUDY REPORT 



The Forest-Range Environmental Study met 

 its objectives. In addition, it created a new 

 basis for appraising forest-range. The system 

 developed from the study offers promise of 

 aiding in making multiple-use decisions at the 

 national level. This report describes the study 

 and presents its findings. Detail of selected 

 procedures and information is in companion 

 reports, listed on the inside of the cover page. 



^ Report No. 294 accompanying the Interior Depart- 

 ment and related agencies appropriations bill, 1962, and 

 Report No. 394 accompanying the Agricultural and 

 Farm Credit Administration appropriation bill, 1962. 



" As background to the PLLRC report are manu- 

 scripts on 33 subjects. Among those of special interest 

 are : "The Forage Resource" and "Future Demands on 

 the Public Lands." 



The objectives of this report are: (1) To 

 present concepts and methods developed in a 

 new approach to assembly of natural resource 

 information, and its evaluation and analysis, 

 (2) to present the assembled information as a 

 1970 estimate of the land base and resource 

 output of the Nation's forest-range, and (3) 

 through examination of selected policy alter- 

 natives, to illustrate the capabilities of the 

 analytical system to assist in resource alloca- 

 tion. The material is developed in five distinct 

 but related chapters. 



The first chapter, "Inventory Concepts and 

 Procedures," reports on the conceptual develop- 

 ment of ecosystems, management sti'ategies, 

 yields, costs, and environmental quality indices. 

 All of these relate to the inventory of the land 

 base. 



The second chapter, "Resource Situation — 

 1970," describes the land area that is the forest- 

 range environment. Accounted for and dis- 

 cussed under the 34 ecosystems is the 63 per- 

 cent of the land base in the 48 conterminous 

 States defined as forest-range. Estimates of 

 1970 levels of range management and produc- 

 tion of 22 resource outputs are given. 



The third chapter, "Demand for Outputs of 

 the Forest-Range Environment," reports on the 

 conceptual framework of demand analysis and 

 demand projections for the outputs of the 

 forest-range resource. The limitation of the 

 demand (needs) analysis and its use are dis- 

 cussed. Emphasis is on demand for livestock 

 grazing. "Targets" for production of animal 

 unit months of grazing are developed. How- 

 ever, demands for other outputs from forest- 

 range are presented as assembled from existing 

 authoritative sources. The section concludes 

 with an assessment of the needs to year 2000 

 for outputs from the forest-range. 



"Analytical Concepts and Procedures," the 

 fourth chapter, explains procedures used to 

 relate demand and supply of forest-range 

 parameters. The role of efficiency in resource 

 allocation is explained as used in this study. 

 The section then briefiy explains the analytical 

 model developed for determining optimum allo- 

 cation of resources to obtain a particular objec- 

 tive and puts the entire analytical system into 

 focus. The concept of "policy alternative" is 

 explained and the basic types of analyses made 

 are listed. Finally, this section explains the 

 intent and use of constraints in the various 

 alternatives and summarizes the operational 

 assumptions. 



The fifth and last chapter, "Analysis of Alter- 

 native Mixtures of Resource Use," illustrates 

 the utility of the complete analytical system. 

 It develops selected policy alternatives and dis- 

 cusses predicted shifts in forest-range graz- 

 ing and management level to obtain the desired 

 animal-unit-month target and under the speci- 



