acres. The acreage grazed under management 

 Strategies B and C would decrease from 641 

 million acres to 515 million acres. Acreage in 

 Strategies D and E would increase to 274 mil- 

 lion acres (Strategies D and E) from 194 mil- 

 lion acres (Strategies D, E, and X) in 1970. 



Because the ecogroups have different char- 

 acteristics, the same analysis resulted in dif- 

 ferent responses by each ecogroup. The West- 

 ern Range ecogroup under Alternative 19 was 

 75 percent grazed, compared to 86 percent in 

 1970 and 23 percent in the unconstrained Alter- 

 native 20 (fig. 47). Under Alternative 19, un- 

 grazed acreage increased twofold, from 58 

 million acres to 105 million acres. Acreage 

 under management Strategies B and C de- 

 creased from 308 million acres to 197 million 

 acres. Area under intensive management and 

 maximized livestock production (Strategies D 

 and E) increased from 43 million acres to 117 

 million acres. Acreage managed under Strategy 

 B and Strategy C decreased from 28 and 46 per- 

 cent in 1970 to 15 and 33 percent, respectively, 

 under Alternative 19. On the other hand, be- 

 tween 1970 and Alternative 19, acreage under 

 Strategy D would increase from 7 to 18 percent 

 and Strategy E from 7 to 18 percent and Strat- 

 egy E from 4 to 10 percent. Acreage under ex- 

 ploitative grazing (Strategy X) dropped to zero 

 from more than 2 percent in 1970 (fig. 48). 



In the Western Forest ecogroup the acreage 

 not grazed would increase from 1970 level of 

 63 million acres to 83 million acres under Al- 

 ternative 19. Acreage under management Strat- 

 egies B and C would decrease from 93 million 

 acres to 64 million acres. Acres grazed under 

 Strategies D and E would increase from 5 mil- 

 lion acres to 14 million acres. In the Western 

 Forest ecogroup, ungrazed acreage would in- 

 crease from 40 percent of total area in 1970 to 

 52 percent under Alternative 19. At the same 

 time, therefore, all of the acreages managed 

 in each strategy would decrease except for 

 Strategy D, which shows an increase from less 

 than 1 percent to nearly 9 percent of the grazed 

 acreage. This reflects a common element inher- 

 ent throughout the analysis, which is to con- 

 centrate higher levels of management on the 

 more productive lands. Thus, higher output is 

 possible from fewer acres. Forty-eight percent 

 of the Western Forest ecogroup would be 

 grazed under Alternative 19, as compared to 

 60 percent in 1970 and 15 percent under Alter- 

 native 20. 



In the Great Plains the acreage not grazed 

 would decrease from 12 million acres to 6 mil- 

 lion acres. The grazed acreage in the Great 

 Plains decreased under Strategy B from 23 

 to 17 million acres, or from 10 to 7 percent 

 of the grazed acreage. Strategy C acreage 

 would increase from 142 to 156 million acres, 

 or from 62 to 68 percent. Acreage under Strat- 



egy D would increase from 19 to 27 million 

 acres, or from 9 to 12 percent, while under 

 Strategy E it would decrease from 31 to 24 

 million acres or from 14 to 11 percent. About 

 900 thousand acres managed under Strategy X 

 in 1970 is eliminated under Alternative 19. 

 Ninety-seven percent of this ecogroup would be 

 grazed as compared to 95 percent in the Re- 

 source Situation — 1970 and 94 percent under 

 Alternative 20. 



The impacts of Alternative 19 on the Eastern 

 Forest ecogroup would be substantial. Grazed 

 acreage would increase from 160 million acres 

 to 175 million acres. One major change in man- 

 agement strategies would occur in the Eastern 

 Forest. Acreage under Strategy D would in- 

 crease from 2 percent of the grazed acreage 

 to nearly 24 percent, or an increase from 10 

 million to 93 million acres. Acres managed 

 under the other strategies would remain gen- 

 erally unchanged, except for the elimination of 

 72 million acres managed under exploitative 

 systems in 1970. Forty-four percent of the eco- 

 group would be grazed, as compared with 41 

 percent in the Resource Situation^ — -1970 and 

 23 percent under the unconstrained least-cost 

 Alternative 20. 



Simultaneously, with the changes in grazed 

 acreage, production of animal unit months 

 would increase from the 1970 level of 213 

 million to the demand level for year 2000 of 

 320 million. Increases would occur in all eco- 

 groups under Alternative 19 but greatest in the 

 Eastern Forest (fig. 49). 



In the Western Range ecogroup the produc- 

 tion of grazing would increase from 56 million 

 animal unit months in 1970 to 78 million in 

 year 2000, an increase of 39 percent, under 

 conditions of Alternative 19 (table 57). Under 

 Alternative 20 production would have been 57 

 million animal unit months, essentially un- 

 changed from the 1970 level. 



The Western Range ecogroup contains a con- 

 siderable number of resource units that are 

 competitive with other areas. This total produc- 

 tion level in the Western Range ecogroup, 

 however, is maintained only through concen- 

 tration of intensive management strategies on 

 the more productive resource units. 



Production under Alternative 19 would in- 

 crease by 27 percent over 1970 in the Western 

 Forest ecogroup. Under Alternative 20, pro- 

 duction would decrease from 1970 level by 21 

 percent, the largest decrease by any ecogroup. 

 The increased production under Alternative 19 

 results from the constraints which require 

 only a minimum amount of acreage in this 

 ecogroup to be grazed at the 1970 management 

 level. Since this analysis specified least-cost, 

 the requirement of continued grazing forced 

 the selection of more intensive management on 



83 



