REINDEER GRAZING INVESTIGATIONS IN ALASKA 31 
acres for winter. Yearlong, this requirement -would become 40 to GO 
acres. The extensive reconnaissance thus far conducted indicates 
that 40 to 45 acres a head will probably apply generally to the Norton 
Sound section and south, and 50 or 60 acres for the Seward Peninsula 
and north. The Seward Peninsula, for example, now carries about 
83,000 reindeer, and from computations of acreage and on a basis 
of a 60-acre requirement, it has a future carrying capacity of 200,000 
head. A 60-acre requirement is fixed for the peninsula section at this 
time to insure a safe basis for stocking. Later, if it should be found 
that the range is not being fully utilized, folloAving careful inspection 
of the individual allotments, a gradual increase may be made until 
full capacity is reached. 
If, as indicated by the present studies, it may take a depleted lichen 
range from 15 to 30 years to recover, the importance of carefully 
protecting the winter ranges becomes readily apparent. Some system 
of deferred and rotation grazing must be devised, and sufficient acre- 
age provided to make it practicable. Under a permit system, based 
on an estimated carrying capacity for each allotment, it would be 
advisable first to proceed on the basis of 60 acres a head, and then 
later, should unclerutilization be found, gradually to increase the 
stocking to full capacity, as determined by careful and continuous 
inspection. 
On the basis of a 40 to 60 acre requirement, the total available range 
in Alaska suitable for grazing should support 3.000.000 reindeer. 
The coast section now occupied by herds should when fully stocked 
carry 1,000,000 reindeer. 
MANAGEMENT 
The reindeer herds in Alaska are rapidly increasing in size, so 
that better and proper methods of management are more important. 
Former methods of handling applicable to small herds are no longer 
sufficient ; better and modern methods to conform to the larger herds 
must now be adopted. Under proper management and organization 
the reindeer industry has a promising future, but a decided change 
toward better methods must now take place if full progress is to be 
maintained. 
RANGE CONTROL AND REGULATION 
As a natural development of the growing use of the open range, 
some system of range control and grazing regulation is certain 
sooner or later to be established. Such a system, which is necessary 
if a permanent industry is to be built up. would contemplate the 
division of range into allotments, as determined by natural units, 
each owner being given a permit to graze a certain number of head 
upon a certain unit. In the presence of numerous small owners, this 
will require that reindeer be held in cooperative herds and that the 
owners organize into cooperative reindeer associations or livestock 
companies. 
To avoid future difficulty it is undoubtedly best that Eskimo- 
owned and white-owned herds be kept separate as far as practicable. 
In instances of mixed ownership, where controversies arise, every 
effort should be made toward readjustment, and the herds should 
be separated and combined with others to obtain uniform ownership. 
