19 



land. One can only speculate on the fate of upland game birds in 



Montana's grain belt and of nesting and migrant waterfowl in Montana's 



prairie potholes should saline seeps proliferate. Wildlife population 



trends in response to the spreading saline problem have not been 



established. Perhaps what Aldo Leopold observed 25 years ago can 



be expected. He was reflecting upon a jackpine sand farm in Wisconsin 



and depleted soils and fallen civilizations in North Africa and the 



Middle East: 



This. . . display of disorganization in the land seems to 

 be similar to disease in an animal, except that it never 

 culminates in complete disorganization or death. The 

 land recovers, but at some reduced level of complexity, 

 and with a reduced carrying capacity for people, plants, 

 and animals (18). 



Natural and Agricultural Ecosystems 



Research on saline seep in Montana has been insufficient. 

 Efforts have been restricted to geology and subsurface hydrology, as 

 described in the first part of this paper, and to soil moisture management 

 by crop selection and farming practices. These studies should of 

 course be continued and expanded. 



Ultimately, however, the solution to the problem may depend 

 on understanding complex ecological relationships as they operated, 

 apparently with some success in forestalling saline seeps, for many 

 thousand years on the native prairie of the Highwood Bench and similar 

 areas of the northern plains. Thus it is innportant to compare that 



