New Trends in Standards of Range Use

The mountain lands of the West yield the products essential to the region's welfare; namely, water, timber, and range for livestock and game. In addition these lands have high recreational and aesthetic value. In the West, water is precious above all things. The amount of available and usable water markedly influences urban as well as rural development and economy. The problem of improving and maintaining range land productivity is closely related to the problem of conserving water and making most effective use of it. It is for this reason that the subject of standards of range use is important, not only from a range-resource viewpoint but from other land use as well.