inland empire it happens each year. In eastern Montana and southern Idaho lodgepole pine frequently occurs as a pure type, while in western Montana and northern Idaho it usually occurs in mixtures with other trees. Such variations need study to develop tailored management methods to insure long-term productivity for the different species and forest types.

A serious problem of lodgepole pine is extreme density, or overstocking, which results in stagnation and loss in growth. Information is needed on the density of stand, at various ages, and on the wide variation of site conditions which will most efficiently utilize the site to produce the size of tree desired. Once these standards of density are determined, further study is needed to find how to control density economically after cutting. And what can be done to improve growth in the overdense stands now occupying thousands of acres? How effective are thinning and pruning practices, and to what extent are they economic? Just how should immature stands be managed?

The foregoing paragraphs list a few problems needing attention, but there are others. What are the effects of variations in soils on lodgepole pine regeneration, stocking, growth, and defect? What is the growth and yield of lodgepole forests, and how can management improve this? How can timber harvesting be coordinated with recreation requirements, with watershed management, with livestock grazing, with big game use?

4. Watershed and land conservation considerations are of primary importance in lodgepole pine areas

In conjunction with developing cheaper and more efficient logging methods, attention must be given to recognizing and understanding the effects of timber harvest on the land. What are the effects of various logging methods on site deterioration, watershed damage, stream pollution? The importance of these lodgepole pine forests to the watersheds of the West cannot be minimized.

How to control peak runoff without increasing erosion and sediment production is another problem. As these vast forests are logged, increases in water yield can be anticipated. It is essential to understand the effects and relationships of increased yield and erosion.

How can snowmelt be prolonged to effect a more even distribution of streamflow? Cutover timber stands, second-growth stands, and old-growth stands all have different capacities to hold snow. What these differences are and how the different stand conditions relate to snowmelt need to be fully understood.

5. Cutting practices affect range uses

Cutting of lodgepole pine results in increased forage for livestock grazing. Little is known, however, of the forage responses following logging—the kind, amount, development, and persistence. Nor is much known about how to utilize and manage forage in cut areas for livestock production without detrimental effects on timber production and watershed values.

The same problems exist in the use of cutover areas for big game production. 6. Insect and disease control problems of lodgepole pine

Like other tree species, lodgepole pine is beset with a number of insects and diseases which must be controlled if this species is to be grown, managed, and utilized.

One of the most destructive insects to Montana forests is the mountain pine beetle. An epidemic of this beetle in Montana and Idaho lodgepole pine stands between 1911 and 1935 destroyed 15 billion feet of timber. Information on the biology and control of this and other insects affecting lodgepole pine is a must for management of these forests.

Another serious pest of lodgepole pine, dwarfmistletoe, needs much additional study to determine its impact and control methods. Most of Montana's lodgepole pine stands are affected to some extent by this disease.

Lodgepole pine has many other serious diseases about which little is known. What is the importance of red heart, what is its cause, and what can be done about it? How can hip canker be controlled? What is the effect of native rusts and how can they be controlled? What is the pathological rotation age for lodgepole pine as determined by heart rots?

7. Bozeman is geographically at center of major part of resource

As shown in the map on the following page, Bozeman is located geographically in the heart of the West's lodgepole pine type forests. Sixty-seven percent of the total resource is in the three States of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming; and these States plus Colorado contain 80 percent of the total resource.

In addition to the close proximity to a major part of the total resource, Bozeman is also an advantageous location in terms of a close proximity to all of the variations in species and forest types described above in No. 3. Being on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide and near the headwaters of the Missouri Basin, close proximity to major watershed and forest livestock ranges is also possible. Thus, field study and research in all aspects of land management can be accomplished in a most efficient and economic manner.

Bozeman's location is particularly outstanding from the point of manufacturing and utilization, too. Most active development, in point of time, is expected in this area because of the generally superior quality of the resource. Industrial expansion in the immediate vicinity is already well underway as evidenced by the activities in the Belgrade, Bozeman, Livingston, and White Sulphur Springs areas, all within less than 100 highway miles of Bozeman. 8. Related research and laboratory facilities are available at Montana State College

Montana State College, located in Bozeman, is a land grant college with research personnel and facilities available for cooperative research. Numerous Federal agencies and land management functions are presently performed there that will be beneficial to any basic forestry research activities. Especially significant in these respects are water resource and range management programs carried on under the agricultural experiment station; the personnel and laboratory facilities of the divisions of agriculture, engineering, and science; the research foundation: excellent library facilities; and an efficient computer center, with an IBM 650, for data processing. Headquarters offices of the agricultural stabilization and conservation, Soil Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration, and Forest Service are also maintained in Bozeman. Excellent opportunities, in a scientific and academic atmosphere conducive to research, therefore, exist in Bozeman for carrying on a well-coordinated program. Teams of competent specialists to work with Forest Service personnel can be organized to attack the myriad problems associated with conserving and developing the region's timber resource. Additionally, substantial economies are possible by the use of existing technical buildings and laboratory spaces at Montana State College, thereby eliminating the large costs for physical facilities which would normally be required in establishment of a new research program. The administration at Montana State College pledges full cooperation in making that institution's facilities available on a cooperative basis at minimum costs.

CONCLUSION

In just about every one of the problems of lodgepole pine utilization, protection, and management listed in the foregoing paragraphs economics has an important part. Which methods of utilization, protection, and management are economically sound? How can the resource best meet the needs of the Nation? A strong, well-balanced, well-coordinated research program can do much to develop the lodgepole pine resource in an orderly fashion and for the long-time good of Montana, other Mountain States, and the Nation as a whole. Research can speed the develpment of the resource and at the same time bring about proper management of the land so that use of the resource can continue to benefit mankind indefinitely.

The research program should be highly coordinated as the apparently separate problems are actually intricately related. For example, utilization depends on cutting practices, these in turn are influenced by requirements for regeneration, protection of the watershed, disease control, recreation use, and big game management. Again, utilization requirements often dictate the management practices needed to produce the needed product. The problems can best be solved by a group of reserch specialists working as a closely knit team on a coordinated research program.

Prepared by: Montana State Planning Board, Sam W. Mitchell Building, Helena, Mont.

Map showing in the shaded areas the lodgepole-pine type forest stands in Western States.

The species occurs in nearly pure forests or in mixture with many other species.

Hon. FRED A. SEATON,

Secretary of Interior, Washington, D.C.

OCTOBER 10, 1960.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: During the last several years there has been a decline in range use due to deterioration of the Federal range. Our livestock economy is most important to the economic growth of this Nation. Each decade for several generations there have been national timber situation appraisals, but there have been no comparable range appraisals.

We find no coordinated national program to foster range development or even a source of statistical data comparable in character or quality to "Timber for America's Future," published by the Department of Agriculture.

We request, therefore, that your Departments undertake jointly to make a study similar in scope to be titled, "America's Grazing Lands." In addition to the analysis of livestock usage, there should be included data on browse for game.

The rapid growth of our population requires that we take immediate steps to better conserve our natural resources. We cannot delay until the year 2000. We cannot adequately proceed without better factual information on the current and prospective situation. Proper management of the hundreds of millions of acres of rangeland is of vital importance to livestock and game production as well as watershed protection.

We therefore, urge that steps be taken at once to commence this study and that it be planned for completion no later than 1963. We urge it be developed in such a manner that future inventories and assessments of progress can be readily made. We believe it essential that there be not only the cooperation of your two Departments but also that the cooperative assistance of the States and private citizens be obtained.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) Carl Hayden, U.S. Senator, Arizona; Clair Engle, U. S. Senator, Harlan Hagen, Member of Congress, Clem Miller, Member of Congress, John Moss, Member of Congress, B. F. Sisk, Member of Congress, California; Frank Church, U.S. Senator, Gracie Pfost, Member of Congress, Idaho; Mike Mansfield, U.S. Senator, Lee Metcalf, U.S. Senator, Arnold Olsen, Member of Congress, Montana; Henry Jackson, U.S. Senator, Warren G. Magnuson, U.S. Senator, Washington; Alan Bible, U.S. Senator, Howard Cannon, U.S. Senator, Walter S. Baring, Member of Congress, Nevada; Dennis Chavez, U.S. Senator, Joseph Montoya, Member of Congress, New Mexico; Ed Edmondson, Member of Congress, Tom Steed, Member of Congress, Victor Wickersham, Member of Congress, Oklahoma; Wayne Morse, U.S. Senator, Maurine B. Neuberger, U.S. Senator, Al Ullman, Member of Congress, Oregon; Frank Moss, U.S. Senator, Utah; Gale McGee, U.S. Senator, Wyoming.

Hon. LEE METCALF,

House of Representatives.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
November 7, 1960.

DEAR CONGRESSMAN METCALF: This is in reply to your letter of October 10, 1960, bearing the typed signatures of 39 Senators, Congressmen and candidates, requesting that a study of America's grazing lands be conducted by the Departments of Agriculture and Interior.

The grazing lands of the United States total about 1 billion acres. This is more than half of our total land area and 21⁄2 times larger than the area devoted to crops. Grazing is the largest single use of land in the United States. A study of our grazing resources similar in scope to the recently completed "Timber Resources for America's Future" by the Forest Service would be of unquestionable value. No comparable review and analysis of the Nation's grazing resources has ever been made despite their magnitude and importance in our national economy.

However, a thorough appraisal of range resources would present coordination, standardization and organizational problems to a degree that was not encountered in making the timber resource review.

Comprehensive appraisals of our timber situation have been made periodically since 1909. The most recent one prior to the timber resource review was in 1945. The resource facts basic to such overall timber appraisals stem largely from the nationwide forest survey, which has been a continuous undertaking of the Department of Agriculture since 1929 under the act of May 22, 1928.

No such comparable survey is available for range resources and consequently, there is not agreement on procedures, defintions, classifications, sampling standards, and various other concepts and criteria that are essential prerequisites to an overall resource appraisal. As a consequence, a resource analysis of America's grazing lands comparable in scope and standards to the recent Forest Service report on timber would be both a costly and a time-consuming undertaking. We believe it would be practically impossible to complete such a study by the time suggested in your letter (1963) even if it were started at once. Also, because of its scope and complexity and the necessary involvement of numerous agencies, both Federal and State, we believe special financing would be necessary. The organizational arrangement and responsibilities for making such a range resource study as your letter suggests need to be carefully considered and clearly defined. At the Federal level, the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, and De

fense would certainly be involved. There are substantial acreages of State-owned grazing land and the State departments of agriculture or conservation would likewise be involved. Private citizen groups would have an interest and presumably would collaborate in at least an advisory capacity.

Within the Department of Agriculture several bureaus would be concerned. The Forest Service administers millions of acres of range lands in the national forests and national grasslands. The Soil Conservation Service offers guidance and assistance to ranchers on additional millions of acres of privately owned grazing lands. The Agricultural Research Service and the Forest Service carry out research on rangelands, and the Agricultural Conservation Program Service administers cost-sharing assistance for a variety of range conservation practices by farmers and ranchers. Of the various Federal departments, we believe the Department of Agriculture, not only through its managerial responsibilities on Federal lands, but also in connection with its various activities in research and with private farmers and ranchers, is the Federal department that would be most deeply involved.

In summary, we believe that the proposed study of America's grazing lands is a meritorious suggestion. To be worthwhile, it would necessarily be complex, time consuming and costly. Such an appraisal should be undertaken only after careful study of organizational and financing arrangements and assurances of necessary cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

C. W. FERGUSON,
Assistant Secretary.

MARCH 13, 1961.

Senator CARL HAYDEN,

Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee,
Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR HAYDEN: You will recall that last fall western Democratic Senators, Congressmen, and candidates addressed a letter to the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior requesting a study of America's grazing lands.

We did so because we have never had a review and an analysis of this great resource, despite the fact that the grazing lands of the United States include more than half our total land area. The rapid growth of our population requires that we conserve, develop orderly and wisely manage our natural resources. Proper management of hundreds of millions of acres of rangeland is important for watershed protection, livestock and mineral production, recreation, fish, and game. To plan and develop these resources, we must know what we have.

We are attaching a copy of the letter and a list of the 26 Members of the 87th Congress who signed it, noting that Senator Clinton P. Anderson later assured us that he "will surely be able to work with (us) to accomplish the suggestions of the letter."

Under date of November 7, the Department of Agriculture replied to our letter, calling our proposal "meritorious." A copy of the agency's reply is attached.

In an attempt to carry out the Department's suggestion that "special financing would be necessary," we have drafted the following language for consideration in preparation of the report on the Department of Agriculture and Farm Credit Administration Appropriation Act for fiscal 1962.

"Range resource review: For making, and disseminating information with respect thereto: (a) a comprehensive survey and appraisal of the extent, type, condition, and ownership, and the present and prospective productivity of the range and pasture lands of the Nation and of the present and prospective requirements for range and pasture resources, $1 million to remain available until expended: Provided, That such amounts thereof may be transferred to other departments as may be needed to finance the portion of such survey and study undertaken by them under cooperative arrangements."

We are now engaged in a study of our recreation resources. In the recently completed "Timber Resources for America's Future," the Forest Service gave us an invaluable inventory and made recommendations which must be followed if we are to have the wood we need in the future. We need the same kind of an inventory and blueprint for our great national grazing resources.

Sincerely,

MIKE MANSFIELD.
LEE METCALF.