154 SUKVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



divide east of the East Fork of Hood Eiver ; (3) all that portion of the 

 reserve north of an east-aud-west line drawn through the northern 

 boundary of tbe Warm Springs Indian Reservation. 



HucJdeberry patches. — In this connection one of Oregon's peculiar insti- 

 tutions should uot toe lost sight of. I refer to the practice common to 

 the ranchers and townspeople who live near the Cascade Mountains of 

 resorting to the mountains in summer to pick huckleberries. There are 

 areas in the mountains which, from late August to October, produce 

 annually an enormous amount of wild huckleberries (chiefly the kind 

 known to botanists as Vaccinium membrmiaceum), and the present 

 inhabitants, following an aboriginal custom of the Indians, go into the 

 mountains, usually a whole family together, often driving 101) miles, 

 and camp out for a few weeks, hunting, fishing, and i:)icking huckle- 

 berries. One such area known as Huckleberry Mountain lies about 12 

 miles southwest of Crater Lake, immediately south and east of Union 

 Creek, an affluent of Itogue River. It is not included witbin the bounda- 

 ries of the proposed closed area at Crater Lake, described above, and 

 should be made an additional closed area. Immense huckleberry 

 patches are situated on and immediately south of Mount Hood and 

 should be taken into consideration in defining the closed area of that 

 vicinity. Another favorite huckleberry patch lies on the west slope of 

 the Cascades, south of the Santiam-Prineville road; but it was not 

 visited by us nor was its exact location ascertained. 



Finally, with reference to closed areas, as the population of Oregon 

 increases the recreation of the people will require the setting aside of 

 additional areas of resort, from which sheep must be excluded. No 

 place will be attractive as a public resort if the vegetatiou is eaten off 

 every year by sheep, nor can camping parties under such circumstances 

 find suitable pasturage for their horses. 



GKAJZING PERMITS. 



The system of regulations I have to propose, which may be called 

 the "special tract permit system," is, in brief, the granting of the 

 grazing privilege to sheep owners in return for the protection of 

 the reserve from forest fires and overgrazing. It is proposed to grant 

 to each owner a permit to graze on a specified territory a certain num- 

 ber of sheep, such as that area can support without detriment, to give 

 him the exclusive right to graze on that area, and to protect him in 

 that right, at the same time requiring on his part that he confine him- 

 self to that area, fulfill all the terms of his agreement with the Govern- 

 ment, and especially that he keep the area free, so far as lies within his 

 power, from forest tires. 



As an illustration I may cite the Fish Lake range, in the Three 

 Sisters range district. This range is divided into five smaller ranges, 

 known as The Parks, Bald Mountain, Iron Mountain, Browder Ridge, 

 and the Blue River range. These, altogether, will support, without 

 overgrazing, six bands averaging 2,000 each, one band upon each of the 

 first four, two bands upon the last." In 1896 there were eight bands 

 on the Fish Lake range — two of them on The Parks, one on Bald 

 Mountain, one on Iron Mountain, the other four on Browder Ridge and 

 the Blue River range, alternating one or two on the former and three 

 or two on the latter. This was a larger number of sheep than the Fish 

 Lake range could support properly, and as a result the sheep did uot 

 come out in good condition and there was general dissatisfaction among 

 the owners. By the adoption of the system here proposed the number 



