TOWNSHIP DESCRIPTIONS. 33 



the summer. Much of the precipitation, however, is lost in the talus and debris 

 which litters the valle}'^ bottoms and the slopes. The chief drainage channels are 

 Deep, Suce, and Mission creeks, the waters of which are more or less utilized for irri- 

 gation purposes. 



Towns and settlements. — None. 



Forest conditions. — The forest generally is thinly stocked, with the exceptions 

 of lodgepole-pine stands at middle elevations and small tracts of mixed growth along 

 northern slopes bordering Mission Creek in its upper and western portions. Fifty 

 per cent of the forest is composed of young growth 30 to 50 years old — reforestations 

 after fires which burned that long since. All the slopes directly fronting on the 

 Yellowstone Valley up to 7,000 feet bear stands composed of red fir to the extent of 

 95 per cent, mostly of the common, slender, eastern Montana type. The forest in 

 the upper portions of the canyons and on the higher slopes is composed of stands of 

 lodgepole pine, often 95 per cent pure, alternating with mixed stands of subalpine 

 fir and Engelmann spruce, all of small size, even when of mature growth. The 

 forest along the high crests and near timber line consists of more or less scattered 

 trees of subalpine fir, white-bark pine, and Engelmann spruce, stocky and stunted 

 in growth. As a whole the forest in the township is too small for mill timber, and 

 is valuable chiefly for fuel, and most of all for the stability it imparts to the steep, 

 loose, crumbling, and sliding mountain slopes that make up the larger portion of 

 the township. All of the timbered areas are difficult of access. 



Gutting. — ;Small quantities have been cut here and there on upper Suce and 

 along the middle areas of Mission Creek. 



Burns. — Burns have been frequent and extensive, both in past and in present 

 ■ times. All the young growth 30 to 50 years old, both of lodgepole pine and of red 

 fir, as well as the old and mature, pure-stand, lodgepole-pine growths, mark clean- 

 burning fires of various ages. The burns of recent times, swept clean of forest and 

 not yet restocking, aggregate 3,800 acres. 



Reproduction. — Reproduction is slow and deficient on all the recently burned- 

 over ground and also throughout the thin and scattered subalpine forest. On areas 

 burned over forty to sixty years ago young growth is abundant and is composed of 

 red fir and lodgepole pine, set close and fully stocking the ground. In the mature. 

 Or partly mature, forest young growth is present in moderate quantities, sufficient 

 to maintain the present density of stands. 



Undergrowth. — On the burned-over slopes, which are not yet reforesting, brush 

 growths composed chiefly of Ceanothus velutinus are abundant. In the cIosq set 

 sapling stands of red fir and lodgepole pine undergrowth is practically lacking. 

 Throughout the older forest there is a moderate amount of scattered undergrowth 

 composed of juniper scrub, alders, willows, and mountain ash. 



9574— No. 29—04 3 



