INTRODUCTION 



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Increasing ecolog-ical awareness, changing 

 views about economic growth as an indicator 

 of national well-being, and at the same time, a 

 well-documented need for more goods and ser- 

 vices, present a paradox. How can modern 

 Man satisfy his expanding desires? How can 

 he have his "ecology," his color-TV, his ex- 

 panded highway system? How can he satisfy 

 his basic needs, his luxury wants, and his 

 aesthetics? To what degree can a finite world 

 with limited resources provide these things? 



Within the scope of these questions lies the 

 origin of the Forest-Range Environmental 

 Study (FRES) upon which this report is based. 



STUDY OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE 



The purpose of the Forest-Range Environ- 

 mental Study was to assemble information 

 about all of the Nation's range and to develop 

 a technology for its evaluation that would serve 

 the planning needs of the Forest Service. 

 Needed was an orderly arrangement of man- 



agement alternatives, each based upon an eval- 

 uation of information about the physical and 

 biological resources of the environment. Social, 

 political, and economic needs would also be 

 considered. 



Using the information and technology to be 

 developed during the study, alternatives were 

 to be prepared for setting future direction of 

 Forest Service programs in range resource 

 management. The focus of the study was to be 

 on range within the total natural functioning 

 ecosystem but with consideration of other re- 

 sources and resource uses. 



Originally the study was to cover the entire 

 land base of the United States. However, only 

 the 48 conterminous States could be studied 

 because of time and personnel available, and 

 the availability of resource information. Since 

 "range" is intimately related to other "environ- 

 ments," and since a clear definition does not 

 exist between range and pasture, and between 

 range and forest and some other kinds of land 

 with respect to grazing use, an arbitrary defi- 

 nition was made. All natural ecosystems that 

 produce or can produce forage collectively were 

 called "forest-range." Included in the study, 

 therefore, are all range and all forest ecosys- 

 tems of all ownerships in the 48 States. Not 

 included are croplands, improved pastures, 

 urban areas, transportation system lands, and 

 areas of major waters. 



PAST WORK 



A brief chronology of previous efforts to 

 review the Nation's range resource and project 

 future demands and uses is in order. 



While considerable information about the 

 range has been assembled, no "national," sys- 

 tematic appraisal had been made prior to 1970. 

 Nor had range supply and demand been asso- 

 ciated in an analytical framework that would 

 meet Forest Service requirements for range 

 resource planning. 



The first survey of consequence was "The 

 Western Range," (USDA Forest Service, 1936) 

 submitted to the Congress in 1936. This survey 

 provided a resume of western range use, its con- 

 dition, proposals for future administration of 

 the public range, and proposals concerning the 

 Federal Government's role in private range 



