212 Procei;d1n6s ot rut 



The damage from sheep grazing was found to be 

 largely due to the manner in which they were handled, 

 although there was some sign of browsing young trees 

 over the entire areas which had been overstocked. 

 The injury from this cause was not usually serious 

 except along routes of travel used in moving sheep 

 from one range to another, or in the close vicinity of 

 lambing grounds, and old camps. 



In places where the sheep had been camped on the 

 same bed ground for a long time, perhaps a month or 

 more in the same place, the grass and forage would 

 be completely eaten out for a mile or so around, and 

 many of the young seedling trees eaten or nibbled by 

 the hungry stock. Damage by this system of handling 

 is usually entirely unnecessary, and is detrimental to 

 the best use of the range, as well as injurious to the 

 forest. As the necessity for better management in the 

 use of the range has become apparent, stockmen have 

 fast realized the destructiveness of this method of 

 handling sheep, and have adopted the plan of never 

 bedding them more than two or three nights in the 

 same place, and in some cases never driving the sheep 

 to a bed ground at all, but allowing them to camp 

 wherever night overtakes them, thus reducing the 

 damage from this cause to a minimum, and, in fact, 

 almost entirely removing it in many cases. 



The forest reserve regulations on this point require 

 that sheep must not be bedded more than six nights 

 in the same place, and the practical result of the appli- 

 cation of this rule has been to improve the condition 

 of many portions of the range. 



One of the greatest evils in the destruction of forage 

 on the summer ranges is that of driving the stock in 

 too early in the season, while the feed it yet immature. 

 Lack of range control is usually responsible for this 

 condition. 



