A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 539 



REVEGETATION 



The restoration of depleted ranges to a well-vegetated condition 

 is of the utmost importance. It is essential to more effective and 

 stable livestock production, to more adequate protection of water- 

 sheds against abnormal run-off and erosion, and to assuring feed for 

 wild life, as well as to enhancing other forest values. 



Affording the native vegetation an opportunity to improve in stand 

 is the most feasible means of restoring forage productivity on large 

 areas of depleted forest ranges. On relatively small areas artificial 

 reseeding would appear practicable. In order to assure range re- 

 storation of the important palatable species they must be allowed to 

 develop sufficient growth to regain their vigor and to provide for 

 reproduction either by maturing seed or by other methods of revege- 

 tation characteristic of some species. In extreme cases this must be 

 brought about by total exclusion of grazing. However, except where 

 grazing on a very badly depleted area would endanger watershed 

 values it is seldom necessary to exclude livestock if grazing use is 

 properly adjusted to the needs of the important palatable plants on 

 the range. Such adjustments ordinarily will restore the plant cover 

 as effectively as leaving the range ungrazed. 



Of the several methods of revegetation developed by research hi 

 the Forest Service, deferred and rotation grazing has proved to be a 

 very effective low-cost method applicable to many western range 

 conditions. Simply stated, it consists of deferring grazing on a part 

 of a range unit each year until the more important palatable forage 

 plants have matured a vigorous growth and, where reproduction is 

 by seeding, have matured seed. The rotation feature comes in 

 through deferring grazing for a year or two on different parts of the 

 unit in succeeding years. By such late fall use the mature seeds are 

 shaken to the ground where they may be partly buried by trampling. 

 During the following year light grazing or deferred use again may be 

 desirable in order to promote establishment of seedling plants. On 

 the average, ranges thus grazed for 10 to 15 years gain about 20 per- 

 cent or more in forage value. Certain areas in central Utah have 

 increased 50 percent, and some test areas 200 to 500 percent. 



The more valuable forage species are so badly depleted on some 

 areas that natural revegetation will take at best many years. On 

 areas having favorable soil and moisture conditions and a thin stand 

 of native vegetation, such as depleted mountain meadows and moist 

 parks, and also on deeper alluvial soils rich in organic matter, sowing 

 of seeds of the better cultivated forage plants and of desirable native 

 range species, may greatly speed up restoration. In Ephraim 

 Canyon on the Manti National Forest in Utah, for example, studies 

 of the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station have 

 shown that the native wheatgrasses and brome, and the tame crested 

 wheatgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and smooth brome, among others, 

 have tripled the grazing capacity of small test areas in openings 

 within the forest. However, where the rich top layer has been lost 

 the soil is unable to produce high yields, and although increases in 

 forage production up to 25 or 35 percent were obtained, increases 

 beyond that point wul doubtless be slow until productive soil is again 

 rebuilt. Several cultivated forage plants have given good results in 

 extensive tests on favorable sites in the central and northern Rocky 



