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<br />" ) .,.. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />growth, other multiple benefits to be realized include: a greater <br />efficiency in logging operations, more forage and browse for <br />livestock and game, probably more water; and by reducing fuels, <br />the forest will be less susceptible to wildfires and more readily <br />available for recreation. <br /> <br />The Conservation Platform suggests that 27 million acres <br />of land sub-marginal for cropland production would be more pro- <br />ductive if converted to forests. By the same reasoning, lands <br />sub-marginal for the production of ponderosa pine (Site III lands) <br />would be more valuable producing forage and water if converted to <br />grasslands. <br /> <br />II RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. E. Grazinq on Public Lands. <br /> <br />The recommendations for up-dating range resource appraisals <br />is urgently needed, to rectify the mistakes made in Senate Document <br />199, "The Western Range," published in 1936. This document failed <br />to separate effects of grazing from numerous other factors responsi- <br />ble for range deterioration. As was indicated in "Crusade For <br />Rangeland Restoration" (ArnOld, May, 1963), a re-survey of western <br />ranges should carefully identify all sources of land disturbance <br />in order to accurately isolate effects of grazing. That is, <br />effects of grazing must be accurately separated from disturbances <br />caused by logging, mining, road building, clearing for gas and <br />power lines, and plowing of land unsuited to cultivation. Effects <br />of grazing must be accurately separated from effects of ecological <br />successions involving invasions of worthless woody plants. And <br />finally, effects of grazing must be separated from natural climatic <br />limitations, <br /> <br />But, we can not stop with just a re-survey of all factors <br />affecting present conditions of rangelands. We must restore <br />productivity to millions of acres invaded by ecologically superior <br />but economically worthless shrub species through brush control <br />and reseeding practices. All denuded areas, regardless of the <br />source of disturbance, must be reseeded. We can not wait 50 years <br />for natural revegetation to take place when we can artificially <br />revegetate these areas in two to three years. Ranchers who share <br />in revegetation costs will be interested in protecting their invest- <br />ments by managing their livestock to maintain range productivity. <br /> <br />GETTING MAXIMUM APPLICATION THROUGH CITIZEN PARTICIPATION. <br /> <br />The Platform For American Conservation is designed to <br />increase the supply of "wood, water, recreation, minerals,forage, <br />wildlife" and other goods and services of wildlands to meet the <br />ever increasing demands of the American people. But, does the <br />"Platform" provide for the necessary mechanisms needed to enlist <br />the full participation of the beneficiaries, the American people? <br />Maximum application of conservation measures by agencies charged <br />with the responsibilities of managing our resources require <br />citizen participation, <br /> <br />-3- <br />