occupied by forests and rangelands and 73 percent in 

 the 17 western States (fig. 5.1). 



Each State still has a significant proportion of its 

 total land area classified as forests or rangelands (figs. 

 2.2 and 2.3). Alaska has the largest proportion, 97 

 percent. Even the highly industrialized and densely 

 populated States of the Northeast such as Pennsyl- 

 vania, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut 

 still have well over half of their respective land areas 

 occupied by forests. Only in North Dakota, Iowa, 

 lUinois, Indiana, and Ohio do forests and rangelands 

 occupy less than 30 percent of the land area. 



The forests and rangelands of Hawaii and the 

 island territories and possessions, while important 

 locally (e.g., 72 percent of Hawaii is either forests or 

 rangelands), make up less than 0.5 percent of the 

 Nation's range base. 



The location and distribution of the forests and 

 rangelands influence the uses made of them, espe- 

 cially with respect to livestock grazing. Where range- 

 lands and forests occupy much of the land area, live- 

 stock grazing is almost always an important use of 

 the land. Often it is the major use. In those areas, 

 range grazing and the activities associated with it 

 attain a local and even regional importance, econom- 

 ically, socially, and culturally, that may far transcend 

 its importance from a broader standpoint. 



Most people commonly think of hvestock grazing 

 in the 17 western States when the Nation's range and 

 its resources and uses are discussed. There is good 

 reason for this thinking. Ninety-nine percent of the 

 650 million acres of rangeland in the contiguous 48 

 States and 37 percent of the forest lands are in these 

 States (fig. 5.2). Only 1 percent of the rangelands. 



Figure 5.1 



mainly remnants of the prairie and wet grassland eco- 

 systems, are in the eastern 31 States and most of that 

 is in the South.* Although the eastern States do have 

 the bulk (63 percent) of the forest lands, only a small 

 portion of those lands is grazed. They do, however, 

 have a potential to make a greater contribution to the 

 Nation's forage supply through conversion of forest 

 to improved pasture. 



Ownership 



Non-Federal owners control over three-fourths of 

 the forest lands and almost two-thirds of the range- 

 lands in the contiguous States (fig. 5.3). Except for 

 local zoning ordinances and laws relating to public 

 health and safety, private landowners are seldom con- 

 strained by laws or regulations concerning livestock 

 use of their lands. They can use any system of grazing 

 or level of management they desire. 



Federal lands, on the other hand, are very directly 

 affected by Federal laws and regulations relating to 

 uses made of the land. The Bureau of Land Manage- 

 ment and the Forest Service, the two largest Federal 

 land managing agencies, are required to manage the 

 public lands they administer in accordance with 

 multiple-use principles and policies and to maintain 



* In this chapter, Oklahoma and Texas are included in the Great 

 Plains Region and not in the South as in the other chapters. The 

 physiography, climate, vegetation, soils, and ecological relation- 

 ships in Oklahoma and Texas are more closely identified with 

 Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota than with 

 any other aggregation of States. As a result, the range relationships 

 and interactions concerned with land use, range management 

 practices, economics, culture, and social values are far more 

 similar to Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas than to Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and the other southern States. 



Land Area of the United States by Type, 1976 



Mil. Acres 



50 States 

 (2,255) 



Contiguous States 

 . (1,888) 



17 Western States 

 (1,155) 



156 



