2 

 METHODS 



Study Areas 



We conducted our studies at two sites in Ravalli County, 

 Montana: Charley's Gulch and Birch Creek. The Charley's Gulch 

 site is on a steep, eroding, southwest-facing slope along the 

 gulch at an elevation of ca. 5,000 ft. (T6N R19W S29,NWl/4). The 

 Birch Creek site is on a steep, eroding, southeast-facing slope 

 above the creek at an elevation of ca. 4,700 ft. (T7N R19W 

 S16,NWl/4) . More complete descriptions of the study sites can be 

 found in Lesica (1985) and Schassberger (1988) . 



In May, 1987, we established permanent belt transects of 12 

 adjacent 1-m^ plots at both sites following the methods outlined 

 in Lesica (1987) . Individual A^ fecunda plants were mapped and 

 recorded using the following system: 



S = Seedling (rosette less than 15 mm diameter) 



R - indicates the number of rosettes (> 15 mm diameter) per 



plant 

 I - indicates the total number of inflorescences (stems) 



per plant 

 F - indicates the total number of fruits produced by the 



plant 



