Prohibition of Grazing. It often becomes necessary to prohibit all grazing on an area within a National Forest or at least to materially reduce the amount of stock which is allowed to graze on a given area. Sheep may be excluded from a timber-sale area for a certain number of years after cutting or until the reproduction has become well established. Where planting operations are being carried on it is usually necessary to exclude all classes of stock. If investigations show that grazing is responsible for the lack of reproduction over a considerable area, the area or a portion of it may be withdrawn from range use until young growth has become established again. The watersheds of streams supplying water for irrigation, municipal or domestic purposes may be closed to grazing of any or all kinds of domestic stock when necessary to prevent erosion and floods or diminution in water supply. Camping grounds required for the accommodation of the public may be closed to the grazing of permitted stock. Limited areas which are the natural breeding or feeding grounds of game animals or birds may be closed to grazing. Areas within National Forests infested seriously by poisonous plants may be closed to grazing.
Protection of Grazing Interests. The protection of National Forest grazing interests is secured by the prevention of overgrazing, by the prevention of damage to roads, trails, or water sources, by the proper bedding of sheep and goats, by the proper disposition of carcasses, by salting the stock and by the proper observation of the national and state live stock and quarantine laws.
When an owner, who has a permit, is ready to drive in his stock upon the National Forest he must notify the nearest Forest officer concerning the number to be driven in. If called upon to do so he must provide for having his stock counted before entering a National Forest. Each permittee must repair all damage to roads or trails caused by the presence of his stock. Sheep and goats are not allowed to be bedded more than three nights in succession in the same place (except during the lambing season) and must not be bedded within 300 yards of any running or living spring. The carcasses of all animals which die on the National Forests from contagious or infectious diseases must be burned and are not permitted to lie in the close vicinity of water. In order to facilitate the handling of stock and prevent their straying off their range, they must be salted at regular intervals and at regular places.
In order to facilitate the moving of stock by stockmen from their home ranches to their grazing allotments and to minimize the damage of grazing animals to the Forests, stock driveways are established over regular routes of travel.
SPECIAL USES
All uses of National Forest lands and resources permitted by the Secretary of Agriculture, except those specifically provided for in the regulations covering water power, timber sales, timber settlement, the free use of timber, and grazing, are designated "special uses." Among these are the use or occupancy of lands for residences, farms, apiaries, dairies, schools, churches, stores, mills, factories, hotels, sanitariums, summer resorts, telephone and telegraph lines, roads and railways; the occupancy of lands for dams, reservoirs and conduits not used for power purposes; and the use of stone, sand, and gravel. No charge is made for a large number of these permits, some of which are the following: (1) agricultural use by applicants having preference rights under the Act of June 11, 1906; (2) schools, churches, and cemeteries; (3) cabins for the use of miners, prospectors, trappers, and stockmen in connection with grazing permits; (4) saw mills sawing principally National Forest timber; (5) conduits, and reservoirs for irrigation or mining or for municipal water supply; (6) roads and trails (which must be free public highways); (7) telephone lines and telegraph lines with free use of poles and connections for the Forest Service.
The occupancy and use of National Forest land or resources under a special use permit (except those given free of charge) are conditioned upon the payment of a charge and are based upon certain rates. Agricultural use of land is given to permittees at a charge of from 25 cents to $1.00 an acre. Not over 160 acres are allowed to any one permittee. Cabins cost from $3.00 to $5.00; hay cutting from 20 to 50 cents an acre; hotels and roadhouses from $10.00 to $50.00; pastures from 4 to 25 cents per acre; residences covering from one to three acres cost from $5.00 to $25.00; resorts from $10.00 to $50.00; stores from $5.00 to $50.00 for two acres or less; and other uses in proportion.
Perhaps the use that is purchased most of all on the National Forests is that for residences and summer homes. On many of the Forests they are already in great demand. A large proportion of the population of the far Western States seek the cool and invigorating air of the mountains in the early summer because the heat of the valleys, especially in California, is almost unbearable.
There are many desirable pieces of land on the National Forests that are being reserved by the Forest Service especially for this purpose for the people of the neighboring towns. For example, on the Angeles National Forest in California the Supervisor had about 250 suitable sites surveyed in one picturesque canyon and in six months 226 of them were under special use permits as summer homes. A large reservoir—Huntington Lake—was constructed on the Sierra National Forest in California as the result of a dam constructed by a hydro-electric power company. Immediately there was a keen demand among the residents of San Joaquin Valley for summer homes on the shores of the lake. In a few years it is expected there will be a permanent summer colony of from 2,000 to 3,000 people. The Forest Service has already authorized an expenditure of $1,500 in order to furnish an adequate supply of domestic water for the colony.