^I'TH TOCLE SM'S NATURALISTS . RELEASE Friday. January 15. 1932 



FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY 



AMOUITCE iEIJT ; And now let's go back in the wilds for another of those visits 

 with Uncle Sam's Naturalists of the United States Department of Agriculture, 



Today it is with foresters on our western mountain range lands. Hell, Mr, 



T7ildsraan, what is happening out there at the "Home on the Range"? 



^. * -.h H: * tit 



TTell, it seems from rrhat the U.S. Forest Service men tell me, that range 

 lands in the western part of this country have changed. Many of them Iiave 

 changed considerably, too. 



Of course, you know there are changes going on in Uature' all the time. That is 

 fhe law of life in -the rrlld, as '^cll as In the tame. But , tho se more or less slow, 

 steady changes we tliii^-k of as normal is i^ot .what I am talking about. 



Out on some of our western mountain- range land-s ij^ recent years big changes 

 have been talcing place, and, talcing place fast, '^^aybe you ^'ouldn't notice the 

 difference, but th.«se plsnt ,- .experts,, . who Icnow life on the range down to the very 

 grass roots, find the ground cover h6.s undergone tremendously important changes. 

 Yes, sir, the vfery character of the ground cover has clianged over wide stretches 

 of range. In many cases, poison weeds and worthless plants have replaced shrubs 

 and grasses which used to . oe the feed of the cattl% on a thousand hills. In 

 other places, the plant cover has heen so thinned' out that serious erosion and 

 washing away of the soil has set in, ' ^ ' ■ 



You probably guess what is behind tho fee changes. And you are rigiit,- Fire, "and 

 overgrazing are chiefly responsible. VJhen you put more cattle or s'eep on t lie range 

 than the range can support readily, nretty soon it can't support even as many as it 

 did. 



The cattle and sheep go after the tastier, better forace plants first. "Then 

 the range is too heavily stocked, the better plants which may predominate are kept 

 down to such an extent that their less valuable competitors have a better chance 

 to take possession of the range. Those poorer species supply less feed and 

 support fewer head of stock. 



On the hir^her and drier ranges, Irnd sometimes gets too little rain to supoort 

 a complete ground coyer at best, Tlith overgrazing and fires that land is soon 

 exposed to erosion and washing, . And, the range specialists say tliat if that 

 erosion is not stopped, it will reduce the land to a barren waste. 



