Treesearch

Successful range seeding can quickly restore grass on depleted openings or parks in the ponderosa pine zone in Colorado. Research results and experience from numerous seedings in the ponderosa pine zone are summarized in this circular to guide ranchers and range managers in seeding ranges successfully.

There can be no progress without research. No industry can continue to meet the present day competition unless it is continually developing new products or new and better methods of production. This fact is well illustrated in the field of plastics - a recent product developed by research. The importance of this research is emphasized by the financial budget of such industries as Dow Chemical, DuPont, and others. It is of no less importance in the field of range management.

Results of a coordinated soil-rootlet mortality study in 1954 indicate that the severity of the pole blight disease of western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl.) is significantly correlated with certain physical soil characteristics and rootlet mortality. The finding of this relationship does not necessarily imply that these factors are the cause of pole blight. Evidence reported herein was obtained from a detailed study of 6 healthy and 11 diseased 1-acre plots, well distributed throughout the white pine type of northern Idaho. This study is being continued.

Thirty-year results from a test of thinning a 60-year-old western white pine stand indicate that thinning does not appreciably change total volume growth, but it does improve the quality of the final product by increasing diameter growth and improving stand composition. This test was established in 1919 on the Priest River Experimental Forest, Idaho, to test three degrees of thinning from below in a 60- year-old stand of western white pine. At the time of thinning, the stand contained about 1,000 trees and 175 square feet of basal area per acre. The basal area stocking was 80 percent of...

Disease surveys conducted in 1953 and 1954 to determine the distribution of pole blight of western white pine (Pinus monticola, Dougl.) reveal that most areas of damage have now been found. During 1953 extensive surveys of pole blight distribution disclosed 20 new diseased areas and a number of affected stands adjacent to or near old disease centers. The 1954 distribution surveys, limited to a 2-week period, revealed no diseased locations and only a few enlarged zones. The established range of the disease has not increased in the past 2 years except for some extension to the northeast on...

In the Colorado Front Range, intensity of land use must be gaged with special care to maintain acceptable watershed conditions. Sparse cover, unstable soils, and intense summer rains compound the difficulties characterizing multiple-use management. Water from the Front Range is acutely needed in the adjacent Great Plains, but its quality and regularity of flow have long since been impaired by heavy grazing and unrestricted timber cutting. While such activities can very likely be continued at a reduced scale, it is important to establish the limits dictated by good watershed management. A...

Have we been overlooking a good bet by not using more Russian wild rye in our range reseeding programs? The drought of the past few years has proved the ability of Russian wild rye to stay alive when other seeded grasses die.

Supplemental feeding of yearling heifers on fall range at the Manitou Experimental Forest during the fall season of 1953 increased weight gains 22.4 pounds per head, increased market values 75 cents per cwt., and resulted in $3.93 more value per animal after cost of feed had been deducted.

Precipitation catch for three calendar years is compared for four types of gage installation on a wind-swept south-facing slope with a 22° gradient at elevation 5500 ft. The 1950 precipitation catch by (1) weighing-recording gage with the orifice and an Alter type wind shield sloped parallel to the ground surface, (2) unshielded nonrecording gage with orifice sloped parallel to the ground surface, (3) weighing-recording gage with horizontal orifice and Alter type wind shield, and (4) unshielded U. S. Weather Bureau standard gage with funnel removed was (1) 62.90, (2) 53.34, (3) 39.82 and...

Foresters generally accept without alarm the normally small but continuing losses caused by the indigenous agents of mortality in forest stands. When a stand suffers a sudden increase in the rate of mortality, however, attention is focused upon the subject and a host of questions and speculative answers arise. How much growth is nullified by mortality during a rotation? What are the causes of mortality and how important is each one? Is there any relationship between the cause of mortality and the age, density, composition, or other qualities of the stand? How much mortality might be...