92 ABSAEOKA DIVISION OF YELLOWSTONE FOUEST KESEBVE. 



Drainage conditions. — The run-off is of moderate volume, and is carried by 

 Red Lodge, West Rocky Fork, and numerous smaller creeks, which have their 

 rise in the fronts of the spurs. Their waters are more or less used for irrigating 

 agricultural lands outside the township. 



Snow and rock slides. — Infrequent, and limited to the high western portions. 



Towns and settlements. — One or two farmsteads near the north line of the town- 

 ship comprise the settlements. 



Forest conditions. — The mountain areas bear nearly pure-growth stands of lodge- 

 pole pine at middle elevations, giving way to stands of the ordinary subalpine type at 

 the highest altitudes. The foothill region is dotted with extensive and extraordinarily 

 closelj' set stands of sapling lodgepole pine and aspen, this young growth covering 

 fully 60 per cent of the forested area of the township. Most of the timber in the 

 district has only a fuel or pole value. With the exception of the summits of the 

 spurs the different tracts are not particularly difficult of access. 



Gutting. — The foothills and lower slopes of the mountains were culled many 

 years ago. In some of the more readily accessible portions the cutting has amounted 

 to 80 or 90 per cent. Much fire-killed timber has been taken out. In the aggregate 

 5,000 acres have been culled. 



Burns. — Extensive forest fires, originating five or six years ago in East Rosebud 

 Canyon, burned the timber on large tracts of the mountain spurs, but the killed trees 

 are still standing. 



Reproduction. — In the high areas there is little young growth. Parts of the 

 burns are restocking; parts are still without any seedling growth. Lodgepole pine 

 is the chief species in the restockage. The foothills are becoming covered with 

 extremely close-set stands of lodgepole pine and aspen. It is impossible to determine 

 with absolute certainty whether these stands are reforestations direct after fires, or 

 whether they occupy ground formerly grassed over as the result of repeated fires 

 while the Indian had control of the region. However this may be, the forest is now 

 extending into foothill tracts which do not show a vestige of former timber growth. 

 These heavily stocked stands of young lodgepole and aspen are the most conspicuous 

 features of the forest. 



Undergrowth. — In the stands of green timber there is very little underbrush 

 present. On the burned-over areas which are not restocking, dense growths of shrubs, 

 chiefly Ceanothus, are covering the ground. 



Litter. — In the growing forest the litter generally is light. In the burned 

 districts dead and down timber is accumulating in great quantities. 



Hurnius.^-^one. 



