148 Sierra Club Bulletin. 



GRAZING OF HORSES AND CATTLE IN CALIFORNIA RESERVES. 





1901. 



1902. 



1903. 





No. 

 Allowed. 



No. 

 Entering 

 by Permit. 



No. 

 Allowed. 



No. 



Entering 

 by Permit. 



No. 

 Allowed. 



No. 

 Entering. 



Northern 

 California 



Southern 

 California 



40,500 



Only Stock 

 in or near 

 Reserves. 



35,145 

 5,751 



53,000 

 15,150 



48,144 

 10,641 



54,600 

 13,100 





Total 





40,896 



68,150 



58,785 



67,700 











During the present season permits were granted before April 

 first. 



Regarding this general question, it will be observed that the 

 Department has taken a most important step in regulating gra- 

 zing on the forest reserves, according to the number the area 

 will mor-e than readily support without injury to forest cover or 

 the streams. In the California statistics it is evident that the 

 effort is to discriminate in favor of the thinly wooded and almost 

 arid mountains of Southern California. The weak spot is the 

 open defiance in some regions of the regulations rightly limiting 

 grazing, the weakness of the law no doubt being locally increased 

 through the connivance of venal forest rangers. Under the 

 Bureau of Forestry we might expect an immediate change in both 

 respects. The Sierra Club has been very jealous of the Sierra 

 forests. It intends to labor for the transfer of the reserves to 

 the Bureau of Forestry at the next session of Congress, as it 

 has done in the past; and if any one camping in the mountains 

 learns of overgrazing in any locality, or of the dereliction of 

 rangers, he should make it known. 



Apparently the United States has a far better system for 

 controlling forest fires within its reserves than exists under any 

 State government. New York has done far more than any other 

 State in acquiring lands avowedly for stream protection. These 

 lie in the Adirondack and Catskill mountains. Several million 

 dollars have been spent, and the State owns 1,163,414 acres in 

 the Adirondack Park alone; but at present it is committed to 

 two things which are absurd, antiquated, and which threaten the 

 very existence of what seemed during the period of legislative 

 appropriation and purchase an enlightened forest policy. It 

 makes no provision for the removal or use of timber in any part 

 of its preserves ; it even forbids tree-cutting ; and it has no 

 paid patrol to protect its forests from fire. It has fire-wardens, 

 but they are paid only for the time actually spent in fighting 



