540 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Mountains and in the Pacific Cascade slopes. The forest range areas 

 suitable to reseeding are individually small but total a considerable 

 acreage as a whole. Reseeding ordinarily costs several dollars an 

 acre. For range use alone it may not pay as compared to the slower 

 natural revegetation. In the section of this report "A Watershed 

 Protection Program", the need is pointed out for the early revegeta- 

 tion of about 900,000 acres in order to more adequately protect im- 

 portant watershed areas against undue run-off and erosion. As 

 research develops cheaper and more effective methods, it is probable 

 that artificial reseeding will take a more prominent place in plans for 

 revegetation . 



Selection and hybridization of range forages offer one of the greatest 

 ultimate opportunities in revegetation if this work is undertaken in 

 a comprehensive way to unite aggressive spreading habits of downy 

 brome, for example, with the desirable forage habits of mountain 

 brome. Such research is badly needed. 



PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT 



In the administration of western forest ranges to bring about the 

 proper coordination of grazing with other forest uses and the restora- 

 tion and maintenance of the forest understory, there are four main 

 underlying principles which should form the basis for plans and pro- 

 cedure. They are: (1) Use of the range by the class of livestock 

 best suited to use it. (2) Adjusting the number of livestock to what 

 the range can support satisfactorily on a permanent basis. (3) Ad- 

 justing the season of use to the most satisfactory period from the 

 standpoint of correlating maintained feed production with greatest 

 value from the use of the feed. (4) Distributing the grazing over 

 the range in such a manner as to reduce damage around natural con- 

 gregating places, to insure even utilization of all parts, to facilitate 

 use of feed of particular value at certain seasons of the year, and to 

 protect parts of the range needing special attention. 



CLASS OF STOCK TO WHICH RANGE IS BEST SUITED 



While the class of stock grazed on forest range will largely be 

 governed by the present class grazing the range, by economic condi- 

 tions, or by likes or prejudices of the particular owner, the trend 

 should be toward the class or classes which can best utilize each 

 particular range area. Cattle are attracted to open timber or wood- 

 land areas and grasslands or meadows in openings in the forest. They 

 can be induced to utilize rather steep timber or brushy slopes, but the 

 attempt to obtain a satisfactory degree of use of such areas is apt to 

 result in overgrazing the more level and more open areas where cattle 

 tend to congregate. 



Sheep prefer a mixture of luscious grasses and weeds, and these are 

 essential to the best development of lambs. They utilize open range 

 to advantage and will penetrate and utilize areas of rather dense 

 timber or brush. Usually they graze steep slopes more thoroughly 

 than do cattle. 



The advantage of adjusting class of stock to the range utilization 

 possibilities is well illustrated by a national forest range in central 

 Utah. This area was badly depleted before the creation of the forest 

 but under use by cattle made slow improvement during the first 15 



