EVERYMAN'S EMPIRE

Informational Specialist, U. S. Forest Service There were "giants in the earth" in the days of Creation, the Old Testament tells us. Perhaps the same giants who hewed out the Grand Canyon, raised the mighty mountains of Arizona and planted on them the seeds of today's forests.

The giant who sowed the mountainsides apparently had seed left over and disposed of it in a wide sweep of his arms. You can get an inkling of that when you stand at the brow of Mogollon Rim and look down upon the sea of timber that surges beyond the horizon. It's one of Arizona's natural wonders the belt of virgin timber that reaches in a crescent from the Utah line, down through the center of the State and into New Mexico. Four hundred miles long and sometimes sixty miles wide, it stretches unbroken from the Grand Canyon to near the Rio Grande. Some foresters believe it is the largest pure stand of ponderosa pine in the world.

Not surprising, then, that one-fourth of Arizona is forest land, and that almost one-sixth of Arizona is in national forests!

Her total land area, 72,837,500 acres, includes nearly twenty million acres bearing forest growth of some kind. Nearly five million of that carries big timber (ponderosa pine and Douglas fir); the rest bears woodland species (piñon, juniper and oak). It's all in various ownerships-national forests, Indian reservations, State land and private land. For the most part it is in national forests.

There's 11,420,278 acres of National Forest land in Arizona. So, every Arizonan can be an emperor whenever the mood seizes him. He can roam at will over this vast, rich, green empire. No gates will bar him, and there are no entrance fees. This is Everyman's Empire.

This land is in eight national forests, ranging from near the Utah line to the Mexican border and from the Santa Maria mountains near Prescott to the New Mexico boundary. Two of them, the Apache and the Coronado, extend into New Mexico.

Their names are as colorful as the land they include, and fittingly reflect the influence of the Indian and the pioneer. Ranging from north to south, there's the Kaibab National Forest, with its supervisor's office at Williams; Prescott National Forest (Prescott); Coconino, (Flagstaff); Sitgreaves, (Holbrook); Apache, (Springerville); Tonto (Phoenix); Crook, (Safford); and Coronado, (Tucson).

The Tonto is largest, with 2,411,000 acres. It is probably the most important as a watershed area, and leads the others in grazing. But the Coconino National Forest is largest in the volume of timber.

The eight national forests do much to make Arizona the "land of contrasts." Only in the southwest can you find such a wide range of plant and animal life in the span of a few hours' travel. In these forests you can in a short drive go from the lower Sonoran Zone with its giant saguaros, wild javelinas and an occasional Mexican jaguar to the Alpine zone where mountain flowers wag their heads at snow lingering into summer months in shady crevices and gnarled trees at timber line defy the shrieking storm.

Altitude and moisture determine life in these zones. As a rule, precipitation increases with elevation. The desert floor, close to sea level, gets a few inches of rainfall for the whole year and grows cactus and mesquite. Journey upward and you find the mesa lands, at altitude of a thousand feet or so, where ten or more inches of rainfall gives life to grass and the livestock industry. Upward again, till piñon and juniper trees appear. Now you're in the woodland area, 5,000 to 7,000 feet in elevation, where annual precipitation is 12 to 18 inches. Chaparral and oak brush add to the ground cover. Higher yet, your feet rustle in the carpet of needles from big pines and firs. The cool, piney air of the forest speaks of 19 inches and more of rain and snow, the bounty of the elevations between 7,000 feet and Arizona's timber line, 11,500 feet.

Up here, where forest meets sky, is born the greatest gift of forest to man: the water that sustains his very life, determines whether a village may grow into a city, turns the turbines of hydro-electric installations, and foams from spillways of dams to irrigate the thirsty soil of ten thousand farms.

A forest is all things to all men. It is a watershed. Its mat of tree needles or vegetation lets the melting snow or the violent rains of summer trickle downhill into the springs and streams, or percolate underground into them, instead of racing down in flash floods. The shade of trees prolongs the spring thaw, so that the water from melted snow comes down to the irrigation reservoirs after the runoff from lower country has made its contribution. Thus does the forest tend to stabilize the flow from the watershed of the high country.

PAGE SIXTEEN OF ARIZONA HIGHWAYS FOR OCTOBER, 1946 The national forests form much if not most of the watershed areas for Arizona municipal water systems and farm irrigation. Phoenix, with a population of 100,000 in its metropolitan area, draws water from the Verde River, which is fed by the Prescott, Tonto, Kaibab and Coconino forests. These, with the Apache forest, also feed the series of reservoirs on Salt River, life-line of farming in Salt River Valley.

Likewise, various national forests foster irrigation in Gila Valley, the San Carlos irrigation project, wells in Santa Cruz Valley, and local projects in northeastern Arizona. The forests affect the lives of many people hundreds of miles from a forest boundary.

A forest is all things to all men. It is timber. Arizona's national forests contain a volume of timber estimated at 14,516,500,000 board feet more than fourteen billion board-feet. Almost 13 billion of this is ponderosa pine. Another billion-plus is in Douglas fir. The remainder is white fir, Engelmann spruce, Mexican white pine, cork-bark and lesser species.

That would make enough lumber for one million five-room houses.

The Coconino National Forest has the largest volume of any Arizona forest-more than 4,220,000,000 board feet. The Sitgreaves, Kaibab and Apache forests are close behind.

Leading other Arizona national forests in the total timber cut during 1945, the Coconino produced over 44 million board-feet of lumber. Next in order as timber producers were the Sitgreaves, Apache, Kaibab, Tonto and Prescott forests.

During 1945, the eight national forests produced a total timber cut of 109,200,000 board feet. It provided heavy timbers for railroad bridges, mines, and the construction industry; lumber for homes, large buildings and packing cases; and various products among "the four thousand gifts of the forest."

Barring fire or other devastation, the forests will continue to produce for Arizona and the nation, because the cutting is done on a "sustained yield" basis by harvesting the mature trees which would soon die and rot; removing the diseased or otherwise undesirable trees; thinning the dense stands of young trees, to accelerate growth of the reserve stand; and retaining "seed trees" to insure reproduction. This system produces harvests about every 40 years. It is in contrast to the "cut and get out" methods which some private operators in other states still employ.

This public timber is sold to logging companies on competitive bids, insuring a fair return to the public. The Forest Service selects and marks the trees to be cut, and supervises the cutting. The sustained-yield system contributes to the stability of many of Arizona's sawmill towns. Thus the growing forests contribute to community wealth; to labor and capital in manufacturing, shipping and mercantile lines, and to the stability of Arizona and the nation.

A forest is all things to all men. It is range for livestock. Arizona's livestock industry is based upon grazing privileges on the national forests. Here is another "harvest," the use of annual crops of grass. Grazing exists in timbered areas, and especially in the high, natural parks, the piñon-juniper zone and the lower valleys. On some forests, grazing is year-round. Others provide summer range in the high country which is not accessible in winter.

Nearly 263,000 head of livestock were grazed on Arizona national forests during 1945. The forage supported 158,000 cattle and horses (the small percentage of horses needed in ranch operations) and 105,000 sheep.

The Tonto forest was No. 1 in grazing, with nearly 61,000 cattle and sheep. The Coconino and Coronado forests led the others.

The sheep drives in spring, from winter range in the low elevations to summer range in the high country, make a lively pastoral scene. In the fall, the herds come south again. As such movements would create chaos on the range if not properly controlled, the Forest Service developed "driveways" which allow orderly movement. In Arizona they total 178 miles. Issuance of driveway permits prevents conflicts in movement and protects the forage along the route from over-grazing.

Nature's delicate balance in the Southwest is evidenced by range conditions. Because of over-stocking of the range in pioneer days, much of it was in bad condition when the Forest Service came into the picture. Some of it was further injured in war-time increased stocking and has not had the chance to recover its full productivity.

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EVERYMAN'S EMPIRE

The problem of balancing the number of permitted cattle with the carrying capacity of the range demands close and constant attention. The grazing permit issued to a stockman allots a definite area to be used by a definite number of livestock. The Forest Service has installed fences, water "tanks" and other improvements in some cases on a cooperative basis to keep the range at the safe maximum production. National forest range contributes much to the stability of the livestock industry and the communities and related lines of business connected with it.

A forest is all things to all men. It is God's great outdoors. "Every body needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul." So said John Muir, early interpreter of the outdoor West.

Hardly an acre is there in all the 11 million-and-some in Arizona national forests but that some human beings can find it suited to their particular yearning for the outdoors. Dam the water in Sabino Canyon on the lower borders of the Coronado National Forest, and watch the people from Tucson swim near giant saguaros. Build a fire trail on high Mt. Graham, and you need not wait long; youngsters from Safford will soon be there, in youth's eternal quest of high adventure.

Forest outings have a health-saving aspect during summer months in southern Arizona. Then the timbered mountains that rise from the heat-dazzled low country call the people and cool them in shady campgrounds.

Sightseeing, hiking, camping, picnicking, hunting, fishing, swimming, boating or just "rusticating" whatever your choice, there's plenty of room for it in Everyman's Empire. If you're weary of the workaday world, you should be able to find "The Land of Beginning Again" somewhere along the 1,000 miles of forest highways, 11,000 miles of forest roads (including "rut roads" used by fire crews and the more adventurous auto-wanderers), and 6,000 miles of trails. Some of the trail miles are more vertical than horizontal.

The Forest Service has developed nearly a hundred campgrounds and 35 picnic grounds for free public use. Along the way, a dozen vista points let you pause, point and photograph where the panorama is of unusual attraction.

Beyond road's end, and on beyond trail's end, are the wilderness areas. Areas too remote or too inaccessible for logging and for all but a slight amount of grazing have been set aside by the Forest Service as wilderness areas (100,000 acres or more) and wild areas (less than 100,000 acres) to perpetuate primitive forest conditions for the benefit of our own and future generations.

All these come to 728,000 acres. Here is paradise unlimited for the botanist or zoologist, the camper who wants to "rough it", the hunter and the fisherman.

The 217,000-acre Blue Range Wilderness Area on the Apache and Crook national forests is Arizona's largest. The Tonto Mazatzal wilderness covers 205,000 acres. The Superstition Wilderness Area, extending from the Tonto into the Crook National Forest, has 132,000 acres.

The "Wild Areas" vary in extent from Mt. Baldy's 7,400 acres on the Apache forest to the Galiuro area's 55,000 acres on the Crook forest. Others are the Chiricahua, on the Coronado forest; Sycamore Canyon, occupying parts of the Coconino, Kaibab and Prescott forInado forest are the Butterfly Peak, Chiminea Canyon and Pole Bridge Canyon natural areas. The remaining two in Arizona are at Oak Creek Canyon and San Francisco Peaks, on the Coconino National Forest.

The "cactus league" of winter sports has its stars on ski technique, thanks to six winter sports areas on the national forests. While the season is understandably short at some of them, it's full-fledged business at the well-named Snow Bowl on Arizona's highest mountain, the 12,611-ft. San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

Fishing? Where you have good watersheds, brother, you have good angling. And in Arizona's forests, it's good! Lots of elbow room for casting on 500 miles of national forest streams, or for trolling on 50,000 acres of lake and reservoir water in the same forests.

Hunting in Arizona? Well, isn't the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona? The Kaibab is famous as a deer range. And the seven other forests have their share of game. They give the forage and shelter; the State Game Commission sets the seasons and the bag limits; together the Federal and State wildlife experts see that surplus numbers of game are removed by regulated hunting instead of being allowed to overcrowd the natural habitats to the point of starvation.

Under that common-sense protection, nearly 64,000 deer roam the national forests in Arizona. Plus about 5,000 antelope, 4,000 elk, 11,000 wild turkey, 11,000 javelina, 870 bear, and 145 mountain sheep.

If some cruel trick of fate ever put Everyman's Empire on the auction block, bids would have to start at not less than $50,000,000.

That's a rough, but conservative approximation of how much it has cost to develop and administer the eight national forests in Arizona during the 40 years since 1906. Arizona could not have afforded to make such a large investment. Uncle Sam could afford it because the people of all 48 states share with Arizonans the benefits and products of these forests.

The cost per year went up in the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps, up to as much as $2,800,000 in the fiscal year 1939, when big things were being done in the way of forest roads, fire trails, public campgrounds and such. The cost went down in the last few years, partly because of wartime economies and largely because of traditional Forest Service caution with its funds.

The latest available figures, those for the fiscal year 1945, show the Forest Service spent $944,994.45 in Arizona that year. In round numbers, it went for these things: Timber management, $92,000; range management, $166,000; land management, $21,000; recreation use and improvements, $16,000; wildlife management, $11,000; watershed management, $5,000; forest fire control, $203,000; trail construction and maintenance, $288,000; maintenance of ranger stations and other improvements, $54,000; forestry research, $88,000.

The eight national forests paid back nearly two-thirds of their cost that year. They earned $606,826, the income from timber sales and fees from grazing, water power and land use.

Arizona schools and roads benefitted from that income, receiving more than one-third of it. For that year, the Forest Service paid the State $178,311, consisting of $35,473 in lieu of income the State would have received from school land sections now part of the national forests; and $142,838 as the 25% of forest receipts annually given to each State having national forest lands, for benefit of State schools and roads. In addition, the Forest Service allocated another 10% of the net receipts that's a bit over $57,000 for betterment of roads and trails in the Arizona national forests.

If you include the things these national forests produced without collecting charges, such as water for dependent cities and agricultural districts, wildlife for all to enjoy, and health-giving recreation, then these forests more than paid for themselves.

A forest is all things to all men. It's a stewarship to every forest officer from the forest ranger to the Chief of the Forest Service. It's a 24-hour day when a bad fire is on the loose.

A national forest in Arizona has from four to eight rangers, depending on its size. Abandon any thought you may have had that all a forest ranger has to do is ride his trusty charger along the mountain rides while he watches hand-over-eye for the smoke of a fire!

He is "business manager" for a district covering from 150,000 to 700,000 acres. He uses many eyes to watch for fire the eyes of the lookout towermen, "smoke-chasers" and road crews. He selects, trains and supervises these seasonal helpers. He sees that logging and grazing operations are conducted properly. He maintains the Forest Service telephone lines; sees that the forest roads are kept usable; tries to keep the public campgrounds from becoming too littered; makes talks to Scouts and to grown-up groups in the advancement of conservation; does the paper work that an active business requires -and somehow manages to keep acquainted with his family.

Above him are the assistant forest supervisor, the forest supervisor, the regional forester and the Chief. They determine the policies and make the inspections, but having worked up from ranger districts themselves they'll tell you the "executive officer" is the man on the ground, the forest ranger.

A forest is all things to all men. To the forester, it is watershed, timber, range, God's great outdoors, a public-owned investment, a stewardship. And a frequent reminder of the Forest Service motto "For the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run."