22 BULLETIN 1405, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Aspen-fir type (7,500 to 9,500 feet elevation) : Early sum- 

 mer to midsummer, and late fall; June 10 to July 9, and 

 October 1 to October 15. 

 Spruce-fir type (9,000 to 11,000 feet elevation) : Summer to 

 fall ; July 10 to September 30. 

 The first date shown for each type represents the average at 

 which the range in that particular belt is ready for grazing. This 

 may vary from year to year owing to exceptionally heavy or light 

 snowfall and high or low temperatures. In actual practice, how- 

 ever, the aspen-fir type is used by some livestock throughout the 

 whole period from June 10 to October 15 and parts of the oak- 

 brush type may be used later in the season than June 9. 



RANGE MANAGEMENT BASED UPON PROPER SEASONAL USE 



MANAGEMENT PLANS 



Grazing that will meet the seasonal growth requirements of the 

 forage can be obtained only by the application of a thoroughly 

 sound and practical grazing-management plan. 



If cattle are simply turned loose on the range, even after the 

 first zone is ready to graze, and no particular attempt is made to 

 distribute them or to confine them to forage that is properly de- 

 veloped, they will rapidly drift to areas that are not yet ready for 

 grazing and will become " located " as a natural habit on portions 

 of the range most suitable to their peculiar desires. Once they 

 are thus located it is usually impracticable to hold them to proper 

 seasonal grazing or to keep them properly distributed during the 

 remainder of the grazing season. On the other hand, experience 

 has shown that it is entirely practicable by reasonable manage- 

 ment to confine cattle to elevational zones during the proper seasons 

 of their use. It is evident, then, that specific plans for proper 

 distribution of livestock, together with the necessary means of con- 

 trolling their movements, should be definitely provided for before 

 they are admitted to any part of the range. 



As a beginning of the management plan a range must first be 

 divided into the different seasonal zones. In doing this it will not 

 alwa}^s be possible to follow exactly the vegetative zones or types; 

 the dividing lines must, so far as possible, be practical control lines 

 and will often swerve into the next higher zone here and dip 

 into the lower one there in order to follow ridges and fences or to 

 permit gaps in topography or other barriers to be closed by short 

 fences, since these features will aid in confining livestock, especially 

 cattle, to the zone during the period when it should be grazed. 



Not only is it important to have livestock graze each altitudinal 

 zone during a given period, but they must be distributed within 

 the zone so as to obtain the fullest possible use of the forage on 

 the entire unit without local overgrazing. Usually, then, the second 

 step in the management plan divides the range into lateral or hori- 

 zontal distribution or management units, care being taken again 

 to bound the units, so far as possible, with practical control lines. 



METHODS OF CONTROLLING STOCK 



Since sheep on mountain ranges are in herds under the care of 

 herders, their control is a relatively simple matter. A band can 



