type. Terrain varies from fairly flat to steep; 

 fertility of soil also varies greatly. Most soils 

 over the State, derived from a variety of sedi- 

 mentary rocks, have a basic reaction; but soils 

 in some game ranges, notably in the Uinta, 

 Tushar, and Mineral Mountains, are acid. Com- 

 peting vegetation (e.g., pinyon pine and juni- 

 per) makes artificial revegetation extremely 

 difficult. 



Some game range areas are covered by 

 dense thickets of Gambel oak. Most foothill 

 areas are favorable environment for juniper 

 and pinyon pine trees, which choke out grass 

 or forb understory; this type offers much op- 

 portunity for improvement. Since thousands 

 of acres in Utah are wildlands dominated by 

 this type and can be considerably improved 

 for use by both game and livestock, the signi- 

 ficance of this research can be appreciated 

 easily. 



Intensive initial trials of forbs, shrubs, and 

 grasses, and of planting techniques have been 

 conducted in Ephraim Canyon at elevations of 

 5,700 and 7,200 feet; these elevations are the 

 lower and upper edges of big-game winter range 

 and are also the approximate borders of the 

 pinyon-juniper type. In addition, numerous 

 species of grasses have been tested in plantings 

 on the Wasatch Plateau at more than 10,000 

 feet. Species that show promise of adaptability 

 have been tested further at more than 50 outly- 

 ing sites scattered over the State. This research 

 has emphasized study of shrubs and forbs be- 

 cause comparatively little information about 

 these classes of plants had been developed and 

 published, whereas the study of grasses has 

 been extensive and the volume of available in- 

 formation about them is correspondingly large. 



Besides studying adaptability of plant 

 species, this cooperative project has studied 

 means for improving efficiency of methods for 

 reducing plant competition and for effective 

 sytems of planting seeds, seedlings, wildings, 

 and other materials. Chaining, cabling, burning, 

 disking, and pipe harrowing have been tested to 

 determine which treatment provides best site 

 preparation for typical problem areas. For di- 

 rect seeding, conventional drilling, drilling with 

 scalpers, tractor dribbling, and broadcasting 

 with and without covering have been tried. 

 Seedings in autumn, winter, and spring have 

 been compared for effectiveness. 



This project has been directed by A. Perry 

 Plummer, a career Forest Service range scien- 

 tist, with active assistance from Biologists 

 Homer Stapley, Donald R. Christensen, 

 Stephen B. Monsen, Richard Stevens, and 

 Bruce Guinta of the Utah Division of Wildlife 

 Resources. Results have been substantial. Suc- 

 cessful restoration programs have been com- 

 pleted on more than 120,000 acres within the 

 State. An important feature of this project is 

 the unusually early use of results of this re- 

 search. Treatments developed by this project 

 have been so successful that several other 

 public land managing agencies in Utah and 

 neighboring States have adopted them or used 

 them with minor adaptations. Annual Job 

 Completion Reports published by the Utah 

 Division of Wildlife Resources report ratings of 

 performance of more than 300 species of 

 shrubs, forbs, and grasses (Plummer and others 

 1970); this is a selection that has survived from 

 initial testing of more than 3,000 species and 

 variants. Likewise, studies of germination, of 

 techniques of site preparation and planting, of 

 protection of plantings against the ravages of 

 small mammals, and of changes of ground cover 

 after eradication of pinyon-juniper stands are 

 continuing. 



■ Plant Vigor 

 Studies 



Early studies of rangeland and its manage- 

 ment continually raised questions about plant 

 characteristics that had never been answered. 

 Effective planning of range management re- 

 quires knowledge of plant vigor and the factors 

 that contribute to it. The implicit question that 

 stimulated numerous early research projects 

 was: how intensively and how frequently can a 

 given area (or species) be grazed but still main- 

 tain or improve the condition of the range? 

 This question prompted the initial studies of 

 natural revegetation of depleted areas and the 

 studies of artificial seeding. From these devel- 

 oped another group called the Plant Vigor 

 studies, which were directly related to the ques- 

 tion stated above. 



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