ARTIFICIAL RESEEDIKG ON WESTERN MOUNTAIN RANGE LANDS 37 



slopes these rills join to form larger gullies that finally empty into 

 the natural drainage channels. Erosion of this character does much 

 damage by depleting the soil on the mountain slopes, adding sedi- 

 ment to the streams, and hastening surface run-off even to the 

 extent of contributing materially to the size and destructiveness of 

 floods (i, 7, 30). Where the natural plant cover has been reduced 

 to a point beyond which erosion control through natural revegeta- 

 tion can not be expected within a reasonable period, either under 

 carefully managed grazing or complete exclusion of livestock, ero- 

 sion should be checked by planting or sowing, wherever such action 

 is warranted bv the values involved. 



F 2231 'S 



Figure 4. — Shoestring gullies formed b.y abnormal erosion on a mountain watershed. 

 Such erosion may be checked by judicious artificial reseeding 



A number of species, including native grasses, weeds, and shrubs, 

 one tree species, and several tame grasses, have been tested at the 

 Great Basin branch of the Intermountain Forest and Range Experi- 

 ment Station for checking erosion on high mountain watersheds of 

 the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah. These lands had been badly 

 depleted because of overgrazing prior to 1910 and were seriously 

 eroded. The methods used included the seeding of grasses and two 

 shrubs on eroded areas and hillside terraces and the transplanting 

 of grasses, weeds, and shrubs to terraces and gully sides. In a few 

 tests, shrubs were transplanted a few feet apart in rows paralleling 

 the hillside contours. These experiments were made on watersheds 

 between 9,000 and 10,000 feet elevation, over a period of nine years, 

 beginning in 1913. Results were observed up to 1928. 



