DATA OBTAINED BY GRAZING RECONNAISSANCE 311 



veloped and the first party organized by James T. Jardine, then 

 a member of the United States Forest Service. Although the 

 methods of securing, recording, and summarizing the results 

 have passed through a period of evolutionary development, 

 those methods and the plans subsequently proposed by Jardine 

 form the basis for the grazing reconnaissance work pursued by 

 the Forest Service today. Before that time numerous timber- 

 reconnaissance parties had been organized. The valuable results 

 obtained by the mapping of the timberlands helped to ex- 

 pedite the development of similar work along grazing Hues. 



Data and Facts Obtained by Grazing Reconnaissance. — In 

 the administration of the National Forest ranges, as in the most 

 economical management of the larger privately owned pasture 

 units, there are certain primary and perplexing problems which 

 commonly present themselves. In the interest of the main- 

 tenance and improvement of the timber, the forage, and, indeed, 

 the watershed, the major questions which reconnaissance aims 

 to clarify are: (i) Adaptabihty of the range unit to the class of 

 stock grazed; (2) number and distribution of stock grazed; 

 (3) the opening date and the length of the grazing season. 



The deciding factors in determining the adaptabihty of the 

 range unit to the different classes of stock are: (a) Abundance 

 and condition of timber reproduction and immediate need there- 

 for; (b) watershed protection; (c) topography and climate; 

 (d) character and abundance of forage; (e) watering faciHties; 

 (/) accessibility of the unit to the different classes of stock. 



The number and distribution of stock will be based upon 

 (a) character and density of the vegetation and its palatabiHty 

 and accessibility to the different classes of stock; (b) climatic 

 conditions — total annual precipitation and its seasonal distribu- 

 tion, the length of the grazing period and the period that the for- 

 age is available for grazing, and the variation in forage production 

 from one year to another; (c) obstacles to the proper distribution 

 of the stock, as, for instance, barriers and streams; (d) watering 

 places and possibiUties of increasing the water supply; (e) need 

 of protection of the range in the interest of timber reproduction 

 and of the forage crop. 



