Stewart's (1980) in western Montana, Jorgensen's (1979) and 

 Harvey's (1982) studies in east-central Montana, and Hansen and 

 Hoffman's (1985) work in southeastern Montana. A dissertation 

 describing grassland communities of south-central Montana has 

 recently been completed by Steve Harvey, Montana State Univer- 

 sity, Bozeman. 



Grassland and shrubland classifications that are available 

 for the northeastern Montana study area include Branson et al. 

 (1970), Mackie (1970), and Dusek (1971) but all of these studies 

 cover relatively small geographic areas. 



Relevant grassland/shrubland classifications from adjacent 

 states and provinces include: Whitman and Hanson (1939), Coup- 

 land (1950; 1951), Hansen et al. (1984), Hansen (1985), Girard et 

 al. (1989), and Jones (1989). 



In contrast to grasslands and shrublands, the classification 

 of the forest types of Montana is largely complete. The upland 

 forest classification provided by Pfister et al. (1977) has been 

 refined and completed by the work of Cooper and Pfister (1981; 

 1985), Roberts et al. (1979), Roberts (1980), Hoffman and Hansen 

 (1981) , and Hansen and Hoffman (1985) . Classifications of Mon- 

 tana riparian sites (including forested, shrub dominated, and 

 herb dominated communities) are nearing completion (personal 

 communication, Paul Hansen, Montana Riparian Association, School 

 of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula). 



Prior to initiating field sampling, literature review and 

 data from previous research was used to develop a preliminary 

 classification of northeastern Montana's plant communities. 

 Forested communities in the study area have been largely 

 described by Roberts (1980) and Roberts et al. (1979) while 

 riparian community types have been defined by Hansen et al. 

 (1990) . Grasslands and shrublands were found to be the least 

 documented plant communities of the area and were thus the focus 

 of data collection in this study. 



STUDY AREA 



The study area (Figure 1) includes all lands north of the 

 Missouri River in Blaine, Phillips, Valley, Daniels, Roosevelt, 

 and Sheridan counties; Hill County east of the Milk River; and 

 Hill and Choteau Counties east of the Northeastern Montana 

 Glaciated Plains Ecoregion (as defined by Omernik and Gallant 

 (1987) ) . 



Physiography 



The study area encompasses approximately 12.5 rr.illion acres 

 and ranges in elevation from about 1900 feet on the Missouri 



