Unglaciated hillsides, depositional terrace slopes, and broad coalescing fans and floodplain fill in valley bottoms. Rugged narrow strip coastlands and islands 500 miles long. Average length growing season 142-197 days. Average summer precipitation 6.12-15.07 inches. Average summer temperature 54.4°-56.7°. Kodiak Island group, Alaska Peninsula, and Aleutian Islands. Average length growing season 137-164 days. Average summer precipitation 9.83-13.52 inches. Average summer temperature 48.00-53.0°. Extensive lowlands between Aniak and Medfra in basin between Alaska Range and Kuskokwim Uplands. Average length growing season 102-120 days. Average summer precipitation 7.82-8.02 inches. Average summer temperature 53.3°-56.1°. 1 Includes only lands cleared for agricultural purposes. 2 Estimated by Dr. Don Irwin, Director, Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station, Report of Exploratory Investigations of Agricultural Problems of Alaska, App. 3, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Misc. Pub. No. 100. Included under Anchorage area, not reported separately. Estimated by W. A. Rockie, U. S. Soil Conservation Service, What of Alaska, Soil Land classification determinations do not take account of sporadic differential settle- 7 Includes Tanana Valley and Yukon-Tanana Uplands. 8 Not reported separately from Tanana Valley. Approximate acreage of land capable of forage production in Haines region when 10 On farms contacted only. 11 Not reported separately. (12) 850, 578 132 375 12,334 1,038 2,819, 836 12 No land classification survyes to date. 13 Except for few dairy and poultry farms, are mainly ranch enterprises. 14 No report. At Copper Center freezing temperatures occur during summer months in most years. Source: Farm economic data from Agricultural Production Alaska 1953, R. A. Andrews NOTES.-W. A. Rockie, in What of Alaska, estimates the cultivable land of the Kenai Peninsula lowlands, Upper Cook Inlet lowlands, and Lower Susitna Valley combined at 500,000 acres. 21,094. 50 23, 391. 47 None None None Total, Alaska. 1,528, 176 212, 575 100, 800 27, 562 478, 538 174,237 194, 921 707, 231 336, 173 371, 058 271, 207 2 436, 024 Acreage is not in cluded in total. 1 Negligible amount is presently considered farmland resources. Due to disparity of cadastral survey and land classification survey acreages there may be minor differences in acreage totals for various areas. The net disparity in classipublic sale, or townsite, reserved and vacant acreage is 1,470 acres. fied acreage and total acreage accounted for as patented, entered, classified for small tract, RANGELANDS THE RESOURCE Rangeland resources in Alaska are only partially known and understood. Estimates of their extent vary from about 5 million for nearly yearlong grazing areas to a total of about 20 million acres for both seasonal and nearly yearlong range areas, and if reindeer grazing areas are also included, to over 50 million acres. Impressions of the potential value of the grazing resources of Alaska vary from the optimistic and sometimes exaggerated statements of promoters to the conservative or sometimes pessimistic evaluations of the pioneering operator who has either experienced or seen the difficulties of operation first hand. The real worth of the resource no doubt lies somewhere between. That there are potentials and possibilities of development is unquestioned. What they are and what it will take to develop them are still in the realm of approximations, judgments, or sheer guesses because of the extremely limited amount of technical work that has been accomplished to date in the identification and description of the resource and the very limited amount of experience in commercial livestock production in most of the range areas. Very little is known of the forage species, vegetative composition, natural ecology, or grazing capacity of Alaska's grazing lands. Semidetailed range inventory surveys have been carried out on only about 300,000 acres and extensive reconnaissance investigations utilizing aerial photographs and relatively few field observations on only about 750,000 acres. A vast amount of field range and laboratory work remains to be carried out to provide adequate bases for the development of stable rangeland use and management in the Territory. The total estimated carrying capacity of Alaska's rangelands is at least 150,000 animal units. Grazing areas include some where the climate is mild enough to permit yearlong use, lush grasses grow, little fencing is required, water supply is plentiful, few predators disturb livestock, and little death loss occurs from poisonous plants. On the other hand, there are areas where rigorous climate, short growing season, and predators make it difficult for even a reindeer enterprise to succeed. Throughout the rangeland areas, shortage of winter feed is a most serious limitation. The high cost of long winter feeding in interior Alaska and the cost of substantial shelters which are required are major obstacles to development of interior grazing lands. USE AND OWNERSHIP At present approximately 1,200,000 acres of public domain lands on Kodiak and adjacent islands in the Aleutians, on the Shumagin and other southwestern islands, on Kenai Peninsula, on the tidal flats and upper slopes of the Matanuska Valley, on the more open portions of the middle Tanana Valley near Nenana. Fairbanks, and Big Delta, and in the Central Copper River Valley are included in about 50 grazing leases. These leases now furnish nearly yearlong or seasonal grazing each year for about 3,600 animal units. If range developments and rates of stocking are carried out in accordance with the terms of existing leases it is reported they will provide for about 23,000 animal units. Most of the leased rangelands were placed under lease after 1948. Present production on Alaskan range runs less than 1,000 head annually. Unreserved grazing land in Alaska for both seasonal and nearly yearlong use for sheep and cattle is estimated to be nearly 8 million acres. The total estimated carrying capacity of these rangelands is about 160,000 animal units, but most of this is on summer range only. On better rangelands the nearly yearlong grazing lands, opportunity for development of range enterprises can perhaps be best obtained by forming partnerships with existing leaseholders, by acquisition of existing leases through assignment, or through protest of existing leases where development may be in default. In the administration of rangelands in Alaska it is established policy to place lease conditions and fees at incentive or developmental levels. Grazing fees range from about 2 to 14 cents per animal unit month and tend to average out at about 60 cents per animal unit year. PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES 1. Expansion of the range livestock industry on the public domain The principal markets of south central Alaska would probably take more than 10 times the beef, lamb, and mutton now produced on its ranges. Range developments have been slow nearly everywhere; in places, however, as on Kodiak and nearby islands, there has been considerable progress in the development of a range livestock industry in recent years. Inadequate supply of investment or development capital is believed to be the main obstacle to expansion of the range livestock industry. 2. Public guidance in leasing and development of rangeland The quickest and most sure way to help achieve more orderly use, development and improvement of the present and potential rangelands in Alaska, is by affording (1) more precise physical evaluation of the range resources, (2) more precise economic evaluation of the feasibility of expanded range use and development, and (3) provision of improved Federal rangeland administration. PROGRAM NEEDED TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVES 1. Formulation of a range livestock industry development program In the interest of providing for expansion of the range livestock industry in Alaska, the Alaska Commissioner of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture should formulate a range livestock industry development program tailored to provide ways and means of overcoming the primary obstacles facing grazing lessees in the development of their ranches. The rising demands by a rapidly growing population in farm and rangelands resources in the United States and Alaska in the next 20 years should economically ripen large additional acreages of Alaska's grassland resources. 2. Range resources research Execute a cooperative research project with the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station and the Soil Conservation Service in fiscal year 1956 in determining the physical and economic basis for rangeland use and development on Kodiak and adjacent islands. 3. Rangeland inventories How extensive and productive are Alaska's rangelands? Reliable information Fiscal year 1957: Unalaska Island.. Fiscal year 1958: Umnak, Sanak, Shumagin Islands_- lands. Fiscal year 1960: Kodiak (unreserved mile strip)_ 4. Rangeland management Acres 400, 000 350, 000 350,000 300, 000 Provide for improved Federal rangeland administration, including regular field 5. Resolution of wildlife preservation and livestock industry conflicts in Alaska's 6. Review of land policies and legislation Provision of clear legislative authority to prevent homesteading of land under grazing lease unless it will not jeopardize the use and management of a grazing unit. Promulgation of regulations under which to issue and administer reindeer grazing leases. 1 Field study and mapping by Bureau of Land Management Range Examiners, 1949-53. 2 Field examinations and aerial reconnaissance. a Conversations with persons who have been on the areas or have talked. 4 Gasser, G. S., Livestock in Alaska, Alaska Department of Agriculture Circular 4, 1949. 'Alaska's Native Grasslands-A manuscript of a circular by the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station, 1954, 6 Range survey made but not compiled. 7 Rood, Sidney J., Alaska Reindeer notes, The Alaskan Agriculturist, 1952-53. 8 Leopold, Starker A. and Darling, Fraser F., Wildlife in Alaska, The Ronald Press, |