$ 27 
{ weeks, but now can support them only about half as long. Overgrazing 
on a very small scale can be seen almost anywhere in a sheep country, 
on bedding grounds and along well-worn routes of travel for sheep. 
In such situations are commonly seen the primary bad effects of over- 
erazing; namely, the weakening or killing not only of the herbaceous 
vegetation, but of shrubs, seedling trees, and the smaller saplings, 
The principal bad effects 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 this abuse, (1) the 
washing of the soil and (2) the killing of the vegetation, followed by the 
substitution of other less valuable forage plants. 
Almost the whole territory contained in the Cascade forest reserve 
is made up 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 to this cause has amounted 
practically to nothing in any of the localities visited by us. 
The killing of the natural vegetation through trampling and over- 
grazing has only barely been begun; and the result which is always to 
be expected, namely, the 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 the amount of pasturage afforded by 
particular ranges. As cited above, a portion of the Mount Washington 
range, known as Bunch Grass Ridge, originally maintained a band 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 sheep in going to and from the western part of the Three 
Sisters range district. 
While overgrazing in the mountains has not reached the point of 
extensively 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 20 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. This 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 River, a 
substitution which under present conditions is bound to continue. 
_ One of the first evidences of overgrazing in the mountains is the 
_ restlessness of sheep herders, who, finding a customary range becoming 
short, drive their bands to some other range, which they expect to find 
: 
3 
