136 SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



well-worn routes of travel for sheep. In sneh situations are coinmonly 

 seeu the primary bad effects of overgrazing, namely, the weakening or 

 killing not only of the herbaceous vegetation, but of shrubs, seedling 

 trees, and the smaller sapliugs. 



The principal bad efiects of overgrazing are to be attributed rather 

 to trampling than to actual close cropping. There are very few plants 

 which from simply being eaten off will fail to grow again, but where 

 repeatedly trampled, particularly in wet weather, when the plants are 

 soft and the roots are easily pressed out of the ground, almost any plant 

 will suffer. Two bad effects are observable from overgrazing — the wash- 

 ing of the soil and the killing of the vegetation, followed by the substi- 

 tution of other le^s valuable forage plants. 



Almost the whole territory contained in the Cascade Forest reserve 

 is made ap of a rather loose soil of volcanic origin. It does not wash 

 and gully very seriously, even when exposed to the action of water. Up 

 to this time the damage in the mountains due C<i this cause has amounted 

 praorically to uotjiing in any of the localities visited by us. 



The killing of the natural vegetation through trampling and over- 

 gTazing has only barely been begun, and the result, which is always to 

 be expected — namely, tlie substitution of useless weeds for the original 

 vegetation — has not yet occurred. The principal evidence of overgraz- 

 ing thus far is in the decrease of vhe amount of pasturage afforded by 

 particular ranges. As cited above, a portion of the Mount Washington 

 range known as Bunch Grass Eidge originally maintained a baud of 

 sheep eight weeks, but it now keeps a band only about half as long. 

 The same may be said of a large portion of the range that lies imme- 

 diately to the east of the Three Sisters, an area which is crossed by 

 many bands of sheeji in going to and from the western part of the 

 Three Sisters Eange district. 



TThile overgrazing in the mountains has not reached the point of ex- 

 tensively damaging the range, in many portions of the plains to the east 

 of the mountains the opposite is true. Along Hay Creek, for example, 

 are gullies I'O feet deep in the hard adobe or gumbo soil, which have 

 been washed out by the water pouring down from the adjacent hills, 

 long since denuded of grass by overgrazing. The washing has taken 

 place since the region was settled, and principally within the last fifteen 

 years. The actual substitution of useless introduced weeds for the 

 valuable native forage plants may be seen on a large scale on the Tygh 

 Hills, north of Tygh Valley and west of the Deschutes Kiver, a sub- 

 stitution which under present conditions is bound to continue. 



One of the first evidences of overgrazing in the mountains is the 

 restlessness of slieep herders, who, finding a customary range becom- 

 ing short, drive their bands to some other range which they expect to 

 find in better condition. Disappointed, they drive on to still another 

 range, and so the bands follow each other about, wearing out their 

 sheep by overdriving, and leaving the range with their stock in a very 

 exhausted condition. 



Over most of the reserve the actual damage to the young growth of 

 timber is, up to the present time, confined chiefly to small areas, such as 

 bedding grounds and routes of travel. In such situations the young 

 pines low enough to be reached and nibbled by the sheep may be seen 

 standing crooked and incapable of developing into sound trees of a 

 healthy growth, while seedlings are trampled out entirely. The trouble 

 from this source, however, is coustanth' misunderstood'on both sides. 

 I passed through an area of forest land on McKay Mountain, a western 

 spur of the Bliie Mountains, lying in a direction northeast from Prine- 



