12 MISC. PUBLICATION" 9 9, IT-. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



At the same time the livestock industry in Utah has thrived without 

 injury to the other resources on which the State so largely depends. 



THE INTERMOUNTAIN FOREST AND RANGE EXPERIMENT 



STATION 



Very soon after the national forests were placed under control it 

 became apparent that better knowledge of the range vegetation and 

 the influencing factors must be secured, from 1907 to 1912 a small 

 force of investigators were trying to cover the general field of range 

 problems in an effort to assist forest officers and stockmen. In 1912, 

 on the Manti National Forest, at an elevation of 9,000 feet, the Great 

 Basin Experiment Station was established. In various types of 

 Utah range this station (now included in the Intermountain For- 

 est and Range Experiment Station) is determining the frequency 

 and degree of grazing that will restore and maintain the forage pro- 

 ductivity of the range under the various climatic and soil conditions ; 

 the best methods of handling livestock on the range; methods of 

 recognizing overgrazing in its early stages, and the rate of improve- 

 ment of the range in different stages of depletion ; means to control 

 and prevent erosion on range lands ; and methods of improving the 

 production of range lands by plant introduction. 



Too early use was found to be one of the main causes of range 

 depletion and low forage productivity. Experiments have proved 

 that the removal of the forage crop at monthly intervals during the 

 growing period year after year weakens the plant, gradually delays 

 the resumption of spring growth, postpones the period of seed ma- 

 turity, decreases seed production, as well as the fertility of the seed 

 crop, and ultimately results either in replacement of the better forage 

 plants by plants of little value or in complete denudation. Some 

 other findings are the following : By delaying grazing in the spring 

 until all of the important forage plants have made from three to four 

 weeks' growth, by limiting the grazing over the range to two or 

 three times in a season, by applying the deferred and rotation system 

 of grazing and leaving from 10 to 25 per cent of the palatable forage 

 ungrazed, the range in good condition may be maintained at a high 

 state of productivity and the forage may be efficiently utilized, and 

 many depleted lands may be revegetated as rapidly as if complete 

 rest were given. Under the deferred and rotation system grazing is 

 deferred on a portion of the range until after seed maturity, then the 

 forage on this area is utilized. When the first area is thoroughly re- 

 seeded a second area is treated in the same way and so on over the 

 svhole of the range. A seed crop is allowed to mature over a portion 

 of the range unit each year without any loss of forage. 



Over 600 tests with cultivated and native forage plants have been 

 made in the more important range types in the West in order to 

 increase the forage crop. These results have shown that a few of the 

 cultivated grasses, including common bromegrass and Kentucky blue- 

 grass, and certain of the native forage plants, including mountain 

 bromegrass and some of the wheatgrasses, may be sown with success 

 on areas having growing conditions considerably above the average 

 and where the natural improvement of the range may not be expected 

 within a reasonable period. The building up of the range on areas 



