About 810,000 square miles in the United States was coniferous timber 
land. In this area in the West we now have greater herds of both the Rocky

Mountain and the Roosevelt Elk than'the range will support in many areas.

They had reached a low ebb about 1908 but have greatly increased until there

is not only a surplus measured in terms of the carrying capacity of the 
range but in many places a surplus measured in terms of hunter demand. Deer,

chiefly of the mule and black-tailed types, although"the former often
winter 
below the orests, spend all or part of the year in the coniferous 
forests of the West. They likewise have developed a surplus measured in 
carrying capacity in almost every western State and in many places a surplus

when measured in terms of hunter demand. Management offers an easy solution

to these problems when state game authorities are given legal power and when

the land owner and the state game department work together in the interest

of a proper balance and distribution of the wildlife and the available forage.

Here also are mountain goat, moose and bighorn, the latter in need of protec-

tion from predators, a disappearing woodland caribou, a grizzly bear. gradual-

ly being driven back and badly in need of a management status, black bear,

coyote, wolf, mountain lion, turkey, blue grouse, spruce grouse, ruffed 
grouse, foolhen, ptarmigan, bandtailed pigeon, and a remaining fur-bearer

population of beaver, fox, mink * and marten, with the rernmant of fisher
and 
wolverine. If many of these animals are to be perpetuated it must be on the

forest lads and probably on the National Forests. 
The chaparral of about 40,000 square miles is the home of the mule 
and southern black-tailed and the Arizona White-tailed door. Here is food

and cover in abundance. In so far as the white-tlleod dcer is concerned,

his numbers are controlled largely by predators. In other words, what would

be a surplus is consumed by coyotes and mountain lions r,thcr than by hunters.

Here a managed program could create a surplus for huter approval. 
About 50% of our total area was forest. Probably a tird of the 
area will always remain as forests and this should be so adinistered as 
to contribute the most to human welfare. 
The National Resources Board (1) estimates that in 1960 the lands of 
(i)National Resources Board, December 1, 1934, Sec. i, 1. Stymary of the

Present Uses of Land Surface and of Prospective or Recomanicnded Uses. p.109.

the United States should be about as.follows: 
Land in Farms: 
Cultivated                    690,000 square miles 
Non-cultivated                796,000    it    i 
Forest land                         73,000     "     i 
Grazing -ad                        476,000    it    it 
Other uses                          272,000    "     it 
2974, 000    " 
 
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