uation — 1970 in the index for depressed area 

 impact. This index relates to the percentage 

 of an ecosystem in counties designated as hav- 

 ing a chronic low income (fig. 51). Changes in 

 the index indicate the estimated impact on these 

 areas resulting from increase or decrease in 

 livestock grazing associated with the alterna- 

 tive. 



The change in location of grazing was not 

 sufficient in any of the alternatives to support 

 the claim that one alternative was superior to 

 another, with the possible exception of the 

 single Strategy Application E, in aiding de- 

 pressed areas. Application of the unconstrained 

 least-cost Alternatives 1, 2 and 20 would in- 

 crease unemployment in several depressed 

 areas. 



As part of the capability of this analysis, 

 another approach was used to assess the impact 

 on depressed areas of changing the intensity 

 of management. More land in the National 

 Forest System is in counties that are desig- 

 nated as depressed areas than in the other 

 ownerships. Implementation of more intensive 

 range management strategies on selected Na- 

 tional Forest System lands, therefore, should 

 contribute more to alleviating economic depres- 

 sion in rural areas than would similar invest- 

 ments on lands in other ownerships (table 23). 



A related approach was to superimpose an 

 additional program of investment, for the pur- 

 pose of benefitting people in designated de- 

 pressed areas, on a management program pre- 

 viously accepted. An example would be to take 



one 10.2 million-acre segment of the Pinyon- 

 juniper ecosystem with the highest share of its 

 acreage in depressed area (fig. 52). 



Under Alternative 19, 6.2 million acres of 

 Pinyon-juniper would be grazed with 62 percent 

 of that under management strategies B and C, 

 and 38 percent would be grazed under intensive 

 management (Strategy D), at an annual cost 

 of 4.3 million (table 24). 



Under a program to improve economic con- 

 ditions in this segment of the Pinyon-juniper 

 ecosystem, all of the acreage would be inten- 

 sively managed. This would result in 622,000 

 added animal unit months, 565,000 additional 

 man-hours of employment, and an additional 

 $5.8 million of gross animal output value. For 

 the added cost of $5.8 million per year, 282 



Table 23.- — Qualitative response to progres- 

 sively greater investment in range management 

 071 lands in different oivnerships 



(Qualitative index) 

 [Qualitative outputs were measured on a scale of 1 to 

 5: 5-Excellent, 4-Good, 3-Fair, 2-Poor, and 1-Bad.] 



Ownership 



Resource 



Situation- 



1970 



Single strategy 

 applications 





A 



B 



C 



D 



E 



National Forest 

 System 



1.0 

 1.0 

 1.0 



1.0 

 1.0 

 1.0 



1.0 

 1.0 

 1.0 



1.2 

 1.1 

 1.1 



1.5 

 1.1 

 1.1 



?.?l 



Other Federal 



Non-Federal 



1.8 

 1.7 



Figure 51. — The results of low income. 



F— 498434 



Figure 52. — Low income is associated with the Pinyon- 

 juniper ecosystem. 



91 



