Abstract |
The report discusses the importance of grazing in the Salmon River Basin, its relationship to the Salmon River and what implications a wild and scenic river status would have on this activity. The first section deals with an inventory of livestock uses, grazing permits and Animal Unit Months (AUM's) in the Salmon River Basin. The next section discusses the role of grazing, its relationship to potential classification of the river and competition of uses such as water quality, wildlife, forest, water resources and recreation. The discussion section concludes with possible restrictions on range use if the river was classified. Next, a test case is given in which the method presented is used. Alternative classifications are presented, an inventory made, resource maps considered, alternative classification evaluated and conclusions drawn. It was estimated that there were about 2.7 million acres of forest land and 2.4 million acres of range land grazed in the Basin. The AUM's on national forest land were approximately 129,000 and on BLM land, 239, 000 respectively. The total number of permittees reported was 583. (Author Modified Abstract) |