the spring (after break-up about the end of April until planting time in early 
June) and again in the fall (from harvest time, about the end of August, until 
freeze-up some time in November), the gates to the pastures were epened and 
the stock were allowed to wander over the cultivated areas to make use of the 
forage in the field borders and fence rows and on the margins of water areas. 
About 160 acres (17 percent) were not under intensive use and consisted 
mainly of fence rows, road allowance, unpastured aspen groves, and grassy 
field borders. This area included about 10 acres of dry meadow cut for hay, 
and roughly 20 acres of margins of water areas from which marsh hay was taken, 
About 25 acres were newly cultivated land, breken in 199 (a practice 
becoming prevalent in the region as the second generation has begun farming the 
land, creating a higher demand on its productivity). 
The remaining 116 acres (12 percent) consisted of water or wet areas, 
op ane Cover -- The vegetation of the region varied considerably owing to 
the uence of slope on soil moisture and temperature, and te the effects of 
land use in the form of small-grain cultivation and grazing. 
The following description depends to a large extent on information from 
Bird (1930) who made a study of the biotic communities in the aspen parkland 
at Birtle, about 80 miles west of Minnedosa. The description has been modified 
to some extent to conform to conditions as found at Minnedosa,. 
Woody growth was mainly aspen (Populus tremloides), with some burr oak 
(Quercus macrocarpa) on drier sites, These aspen groves were generally 
surrounded on sites by a shrub zone in which snowberry ( heric s 
racemesus) was the most common plant, while chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) A 
Saskatoon (Amalanchier sp-), and hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) alse occurred. 
Between the aspen and the emergent vegetation on wet sites, there was either 
a border of wet meadow consisting of grasses and sedges or a zone of willows 
(Salix spp.). Bird states that the willew zone is present around the wet 
areas where there is no concentration of alkaline salts, but where such salts 
are present the succession is directly from marsh to prairie, consisting 
primarily of wheatgrass (Agropyron richardsonii), junegrass (Koeleria 
cristata), bentgrass (Agrostis » and needlegrass (Stipa comata). 
Basis of Classification -- Lowland cover, which had a more direct 
influence on.waterfowl, was studied in greater detail by the auther, 
Water Areas 
The water-filled depressions already mentioned have come to be know by 
waterfowl biologists as potholes, and will be referred to as such in this 
report, even though the term is generally used by geologists in an entirely 
different connection. 
There were 127 potholes on the study area, which were separated inte 
10 classes, These were in four major groups according to permanency, as 
shom in Table 1, The two groups which contained emergent aquatic vegetation 
were further classified according to the character of that vegetation. The 
extent of the vegetational survey which served as a partial basis for 
classification is indicated by Table 2, which shows the number of areas that 
were cover mapped, the number which had water gauges placed in them, and the 
area, depths, and drop in water levels of those potholes for which these 
data were known. 
