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Show CHAPTER SIX Range Resources GRAZING HAS ALWAYS been part of the western scene, and livestock ranching has had a major role in public land use. Prior to the arrival of settlers, buffalo and other wild animals were found wherever there was grass or browse. As settlement progressed, cattle and sheep replaced much of the wild animal population on the plains and deserts and on the mountain meadows, both on lands transferred to private ownership and on the gradually diminishing public domain. Now, cattle and sheep are not only an important foundation of western economy, but their presence is an accepted feature of the scenery and the environment. Today, in the 11 coterminous western public land states, the Federal Government owns and administers approximately 273 million acres on which grazing is allowed. At one time or another during the year, domestic cattle and sheep graze on about half of these public lands. More of the public lands, in fact, are used for this purpose than for any other economic activity. The acreages are not generally grazed throughout the year, but at different seasons. Lower elevation lands are used primarily during the spring, while the higher elevation meadows in the national forests are used mainly in the summer. The public lands account for about 3 percent of all the forage consumed by livestock in the United States. Although the total proportion contributed has been gradually decreasing, the public lands are still an important source of forage requirements in the West, where they supply some 12 percent of the total forage. In addition, despite the apparent indication that the public lands are lelatively unimportant to the national livestock economy, they do, for a number of reasons, play a significant role. In the first place, they are often crucial to individual ranch operations, supplementing the feed of private lands by supplying seasonal grazing. Without the privilege of grazing public lands, many ranches would cease to exist as economic units, or would be forced out of business due to the high cost of substituting other sources of feed. The western range livestock industry, which is built around the public lands, also must be viewed as an important source of range livestock for feeder lots throughout the West and Midwest. The establishment of policies for the use of public lands for grazing recognized the integral relationship between public range land and private ranches. At one time, the public lands comprised a vast commons for grazing domestic livestock. These lands were also opened to settlement, which occurred generally along water courses in the semi-arid regions west of the 100th meridian. The settled lands were transferred into private ownership and became the base ranches to which was tied much of the use of the lands that remained in public ownership. Some use of those lands was also made by itinerant bands of sheep- driven from one area to another, depending on the availability of grass and browse. The reservation of large areas of national forests was the first major action that led to the control of grazing on public lands. It provided the basis for the imposition of controls on the level of grazing use of the national forests, and also for the charging of fees for that use. Fees for national forest grazing were first adopted in 1905. (As pointed out below, it was not until 1934 that fees were also charged for grazing on remaining unappropriated public lands.) Grazing permits for forest lands were issued for specific numbers of animals using the lands per month (animal unit months, known as AUMs) and were granted to operators who owned sufficient "base property" to support that number of livestock when it was not on public land. Thus, public land grazing rights became linked to individual private ranches. The permitted levels of grazing in the national forests were reduced below the existing levels in an attempt to prevent damage to the forage resource.1 1 Paul Wallace Gates and Robert W. Swenson, History of Public Land Law Development. PLLRC Study Report, 1968, Ch. XXI. 105 |