ALTERNATIVE 20 



Least-cost 



Minimum output required: 320 million 



animal unit months. 

 Added constraints : none. 



This alternative is analyzed at a production 

 level equal to the demand level of year 2000. 

 Grazing would occur on 429 million acres com- 

 pared to 835 million in 1970, a decrease of 49 

 percent (table 11). No signilicant change in 

 intensity of overall management occurs under 

 Alternative 20 as compared to 1970. In 1970, 

 77 percent of the land was grazed under man- 

 agement Strategies B (some livestock) and C 

 (extensive livestock) , while under Alternative 

 20 the acreage of land managed at these levels 

 of intensity would increase to 80 percent. 

 Under Alternative 20 the acreage managed 

 under Strategy D (intensive livestock) and 

 Strategy E (maximize livestock) would in- 

 crease to 20 percent as compared to 13 percent 

 so managed in 1970. These increases also in- 



clude the reduction of exploitatively grazed 

 acreage from 10 percent in 1970 to zero in 

 Alternative 20. 



The decrease in total acreage grazed under 

 Alternative 20 would be distributed dispropor- 

 tionately among the ecogroups (fig. 47). The 

 greatest decrease, 263 million acres or 77 per- 

 cent would occur in the Western Range. A sim- 

 ilar major reduction would occur in the West- 

 ern Forest ecogroup where acres grazed drops 

 from 97 million in 1970 to 24 million under 

 Alternative 20 — a reduction of 63 million acres 

 or 65 percent. A decrease of 68 million acres or 

 42 percent reduces the acreage grazed in the 

 Eastern Forest ecogroup from 160 to 92 million 

 acres. Acreage grazed in the Great Plains eco- 

 group remains essentially unchanged between 

 the 1970 level of 217 million acres and the 

 Alternative 20 level of 215 million acres. The 

 shifts in acres grazed under Alternative 20 

 thus show grazed acreage to be reduced from 

 86 to 23 percent of total land area in the 

 Western Range; from 60 to 15 percent in the 



100 



PERCENTAGE AREA GRAZED BY ECOGROUP- 

 1970 AND ALTERNATIVES 20 AND 19 



11 1970 



^ Alternative 20 



i:!:!: Alternative 19 



75 



o 



50 



25 



WESTERN 

 RANGE 



WESTERN 

 FOREST 



GREAT 

 PLAINS 



EASTERN 

 FOREST 



FiGXJRE 47, 



78 



