REFORESTATION ON THE PIKE NATIONAL FOREST 647 



Denver and twenty miles north of Colorado Springs. After the seedlings 

 which are raised at the Monument nursery have attained a suitable age and 

 degree of hardiness, they are shipped to various localities within the forest. 

 These localities are known as plantations. The most important of these 

 plantations are as follows: The Bear Creek Plantation (1900); the Bear 

 Creek Plantation (1910) ; the Pike's Peak Plantation (1910) ; the Bear Creek 

 Plantation (1911), and the Cascade Plantation (1911). 



The Bear Creek Plantation, 190G, 1910, 1911, consists of some 54 acres 

 of land, located six and one-quarter miles south and west from the city of 

 Colorado Springs, in Bear Creek Valley, and one-quarter of a mile above the 

 point where the famous "High Drive" enters this valley from the south. 

 Plantings were made by the Forest Service in 190<J, 1910, and 1911. In 1906, 

 some 4,000 Douglas fir seedlings, three years old, which had been raised at 

 the Forest Service nursery located at Halsey, Nebraska, were planted on the 

 western end of this area. This work demonstrated very clearly that in order 

 to get good results on tbese slopes great care should be exercised in placing the 

 plant in such a position that the slide caused by wind, rain, and snow would 

 not bury the small seedlings, which in this case protruded only four inches 

 above the surface of the ground. Notwithstanding the fact that some of these 

 small plants were almost entirely covered by sand and gravel, it is interesting 

 to note that upon being uncovei-ed, they show a growth for each year since 

 the date of planting in 1906. 



In the spring of 1910, some 27,000 yellow pine seedlings, and 3,200 Douglas 

 fir seedlings were planted on an adjacent area. All of this latter stock of 

 seedlings was raised at the Monument nursery, and was planted on steep, 

 gravelly slopes, similar to the large areas on which it is intended to continue 

 this work. The seedlings were set out about five feet apart, where possible. 

 Nearly all of these plants were set in a hole grubbed out with a mattock. It 

 was aimed to set the plant as near as possible to the outer edge of the small 

 shelf caused by this excavation in order to protect it from the slide of earth 

 and gravel. 



The results of this work were very gratifying, for a recent examination 

 found at least seventy per cent of the plants in good condition. The yellow 

 pine seedlings did remarkably well, having made a growth during the past year 

 of at least six inches in every case noted. The thirty per cent loss was due 

 to various causes, the principal ones being failure on the part of the laborers 

 to spread the delicate root system of the seedlings into a natural position, and 

 the work of deer or rodents which destroyed the young seedlings by cutting 

 them off close to the ground. 



Work was again taken up on this plantation during the spring of 1911, 

 when 35,000 yellow pine transplants were set out. These plants were raised 

 at the Monument Nursery ; they were four years old, and averaged, including 

 the roots, twenty-six inches, of which fifteen inches were above the ground. 



During the fall of 1910, some .5,000 plants were set out on the Pike's Peak 

 plantation, which is located on the northeastern slope of Pike's Peak, about 

 one mile west of the Halfway House, a station on the Pike's Peak cog road. 

 The elevation of this plantation is 9,500 feet. Six species of coniferous trees, 

 common to this elevation and its rigorous conditions, were included in the 

 5,000 plants, which were set out October IS, and an examination of the area 

 on November 12 showed that the yellow pine had made a growth of one inch. 

 Since the six different species in this plantation were planted at the same 

 time, it can readily be seen that very good reasons can be had as to which of the 

 six is best adapted to this particular locality. 



Work is now in progress on the Cascade Plantation (1911), the latest 



