Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 4

"EVOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL GRASSLANDS"
By Bernie Alt and Glenn Mueller

The predecessor of the National Grasslands had its beginnings in the mind of Phillips Company, extension agent Henry Lantz and the Malta Commercial Club at Malta, Montana, in 1925. For a number of years this group had watched the erosion of the hopes and dreams of small farmers and ranchers in northern Montana, trying to make a living on 160 or 320 acres of homestead. This erosion extended very dramatically to the land itself in the late 20's and early 30's because of the extreme drought in the Great Plains.

The "Malta Plan", as it was known, to begin with, was sanctioned by Congress in 1934 after Mr. Lantz had been called to Washington, D.C. to explain the proposal to M. L. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Congress. Mr. Lantz was the first manager of the Milk River project of the Resettlement Administration.

The gist of the plan was that the Federal Government would take options to buy or buy outright land from farmers and ranchers who could not continue to operate as in the past because of low prices, drought, erosion of land, and other reasons. Any of the individuals who desired would then be resettled in the Milk River Valley and be loaned the money to level and otherwise prepare for irrigation.

Along with this, the Resettlement Administration would re-seed the denuded farm land to grass - primarily crested wheat grass, which had recently been introduced from Russia by Professor Hanson of South Dakota State College and develop livestock water by dams, springs or wells. *Concurrently grazing districts were formed under state law and the newly located farmers would run their cattle on the grazing land during the spring, summer and fall, and bring them to the valley to feed in the winter from hay and crops raised on the newly irrigated lands.

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*Bernie's uncle, Charley Alt, was on the Grazing Board at Roundup almost from the inception of the district until he retired in the early '50's.

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This re-purchase and resettlement program was put into effect over a large portion of eastern Montana, North and South Dakota, the Thunder Basin in Wyoming and other Great Plains states in the "Dust Bowl" along with areas where problems occurred in timber denuded areas of the Northeast and Northwest.

In the U.S., as a whole, approximately 7,000,000 acres were repurchased. As the country gradually got back on its feet, the land was transferred to the Farm Security Administration in 1937. By this time, thousands of dams had been built, fences constructed, old hazards such as homestead fences and cellars had been eliminated and the land had been stabilized, and was again producing for the American people - this time in grass rather than wheat.

In 1941 the land administration was again moved. This time to the rather new but highly capable Soil Conservation Service, the brainchild of H. H. "Big Hugh" Bennett, the first administrator.

The Land Utilization or Resettlement, or S.C.S. lands, as they were known, were very capably administered through World War Two and were completely restored and considered as some of the best grazing lands in the Great Plains. These lands, which 20 years before were considered worthless and were being bought for from 50 cents to $2.00/Acre, were now being fought over in modern day range wars. These L.U. lands were worth every bit as much as any other western dry grazing lands.

In connection with the modern range wars, a big argument had occurred in the early '40's in what was known as the Kropp-Weber pasture. As a result, a walking plow was used to plow a furrow to show who grazed where. In 1955 when new range disagreements occurred, the division of the range was again made on this furrow. This time however, it was fenced.

January 1, 1954, all of the L.U. (Land utilization) lands in the Great Plains were again transferred, this time to the U.S. Forest Service, a land managing agency in the Department of Agriculture. Interest ran high among Forest Service officials on the new acquisition, so in the early summer of 1954 a number of Forest Service brass descended on the Malta area. The group included Floyd Iverson, Fred Kennedy, Chic Joy, and Zane Smith. We took these fellows on a visit of the L.U. lands, proceeding in the process to get thoroughly stuck, and covered Floyd Iverson with mud as he and the rest of the visitors pushed. The next day Mueller managed to hit a washed-out culvert, 60 miles from anywhere and put the car engine through the radiator. There were two very nervous new local employees of the Forest Service. The fact that Alt and Mueller are still F.S. employees speaks as to the good nature of the visitors.

In 1956, a group of brass, i.e., George Mahrt, Ed Stein, "Jack" Curtiss, Fred Johnson - one other, can't remember the name now - came out to look at Badlands. First of all Curtiss ran over a rock and punched a hole in the gas tank so we had to go back to Malta for a different car. Next we were about 20 miles north of Whitewater on the Canadian line and he lost a bet on whether a distant object was a rock or a resting eagle. I told him it was a Golden Eagle and that's what it turned out to be. There were lots of Golden Eagles in northern Phillips country then and, while perched, they looked like big black rocks. He tried to sneak up on some geese - spent an hour when he had been told it was impossible. And it was.

We traveled East through Frenchman, past Thoeny, Opheim, and then south by Baylor and 300 square miles of the roughest badlands in Montana - to Glasgow, then back to Malta, over 400 miles.

The concept of grazing district administration by local grazing boards was not lost, however, and the Forest Service continued this. It was probably the most successful of all grazing land management practices in the Region.

At first it was very hard for the Forest Service to understand the concept of fire control by the districts and associations. The districts were responsible for fire control, but being a fire organization, the Forest Service felt it was their responsibility, especially when they heard about the 40,000 acre "Election Day Fire" in 1952, or the 3,000 acre John Richardson fire in 1955, which we didn't even bother to report. However, with land scattered over an area 170 miles by 160 miles, centralized fire control would have been an impossibility.

Even under Grazing District Management, there were problems. One permittee north of Loring threatened to shoot Mr. Mueller's airplane out of the sky if he flew over his ranch counting his cattle again.

Problems arose with some individuals running too many cattle. The districts handled the trespass. We had a trip one spring before the turnout time of April 1, in 1956. We counted all of the permittees in the Murdock-Anderson area and found over 1,000 head of "extras" ready to be turned out.

In North Dakota, a permittee had 75 head of cattle on the association ground early. We counted them and the count was turned in to the Board at Medora. The Medora Association rule was $5 a head the first 5 and $10 for anything more. His total fine was $725. Didn't even have to gather - the trespasser did that.

The Coal Creek Grazing District, north of Zurich, Montana, had about 30 permittees. It also had about 700 head of excess preference on the books. The excess could not be run because of range conditions. After we carefully mapped each allotment, we explained to each individual why the preference had to be reduced. The grazing board, along with Mons Tiegen of the State Grass Conservation Commission, met with all members in a meeting and read the rancher's name, his preference, and what his reduction would be. There were no protests.

The year 1958 saw the last move of the old L.U. lands. This time, however, only the Montana lands which were transferred to the BLM. This was done in the interests of better service to the public as many of the L.U. lands were interspersed with the BLM lands. The rest of the lands in the northern region, along with those in South Dakota, Wyoming, and the rest of the Great Plains, were retained by the Forest Service and named the National Grasslands in 1961.

In the Northern Region area, location for management units were at Malta, Lewistown, and Miles City in Montana; at Lemmon in South Dakota, and at Watford City, Dickinson and Lisbon in North Dakota. When the Forest Service took over the lands on January 1, 1954, there were 9 men in the region responsible for management of this nearly 41 million acres of land. Glenn Mueller, Manager; Bernie Alt, Assistant at Malta; Al Whitten, Manager, and Jake Callintine, assistant at Lewistown. Doc Cornell, manager at Miles City, Lloyd Good, Manager at Dickinson, North Dakota, with Arnie Winsness, Watford City, and Harold Johnson, assistant at Medora. Doc Dyson was the manager at Lemmon, South Dakota. He incidentally was the only manager of that project from the beginning until he retired in 1959. Mueller, Callintine and Alt are the only ones still with the Forest Service.

What should be the future role of these lands? They served as a home for Indian, buffalo and other early inhabitants. Mountain men probably roamed parts of them. The Homestead Act of 1862 eventually opened them for entry and they served the America that was being settled.

With re-acquisition of the lands, they were rejuvenated. They produced for a country trying to recover from a depression, a drought, and a world war. Now again, the direction of the country has changed. This time to an awareness of the environment we live in and how we can protect and maintain this environment so that all forms of life people, animals, birds, etc. - can live in it For this reason it would seem that all of the National Grasslands can best serve the Americat people by being there for the people to use, with wisdom, as a part of the public lands system.