24 Forest Club Annual 



Grazing animals, especially sheep and goats, find the leaves 

 and young tender sprouts of aspen more or less palatable at all 

 times during the foliar period. Even coniferous reproduction, 

 the needles of which contain considerable tannic acid, is browsed 

 in varying degrees depending upon forage conditions and the way 

 in which the stock is handled. The extent of injury inflicted upon 

 reproduction by livestock is a problem of high economic import- 

 ance, not from the standpoint of timber and meat production 

 alone, but in the maintenance of the all-important vegetative 

 watershed affecting, among other things, rate of rumoff and irri- 

 gation farming. 



Careful ocular observation followed by innumerable contra- 

 dictory conclusions have been ventured by silviculturists, range 

 experts and others as to the management and proper control of 

 grazing animals on timber-producing lands in widely diversified 

 localities. It was soon recognized that this problem could not 

 be solved by general ocular inspections, regardless of the experi- 

 ence of the observer. Therefore, it was necessary to have some- 

 thing tangible to show with mathematical precision such facts 

 as the extent to which the reproduction of timber species is in- 

 jured by stock; to what extent the seedling recovers from the 

 different injuries of varying seriousness; and the benefit, if any, 

 from grazing in preparing the soil for the reception of the seed 

 crop, in the prevention of destructive fires and otherwise augment- 

 ing the establishment of reproduction. 



In the spring of 1912, 50 reproduction sample plots were 

 established in typical aspen type, including as many typical eco- 

 logical and physiographical conditions as were consistent with 

 reliable results. The density, height, classification, grazing in- 

 juries and other data were recorded by means of applying the 

 list and chart methods. Forty-two of these plots are 10x50 ft. 

 in size, four are 3x6 ft., and the remaining four contain .4 of an 

 acre each. The latter were depopulated (clear cut) in order to 

 excite a maximum production of sprouts upon which observations 

 could be made. Two of these .4 acre plots are protected from 

 stock grazing and used purely as check plots against the other 

 two which are subject to normal grazing. Since 1912 the num- 

 ber of sample plots established in connection with this study has 

 exceeded 100. The majority of these have been examined and 

 the injuries to reproduction due to grazing and to other causes 

 noted. 



The substitution of definite results obtained through the ap- 

 plication of the quadrat method for conclusions derived from 

 ocular generalities, in connection with the problem in question, 



