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Show Forest, Game Officials Combine to Improve Browse Plantings on Barren Grazing Lands Restoring big game browse plants on depleted range lands over the state is the goal of a recent cooperative agreement between be-tween the Intermountain Forest and Range. Experiment Station and the Utah Department of Fish and Game. Importance of the project is readily seen since it is known that browse forage plants on limited animal winter ranges hold the key to herd numbers and future hunting success alike. At present the situation in Utah finds many of the more valuable browse species dead, or dying, with little or no replacement replace-ment reproduction. Much of the grass has been destroyed by livestock overuse, thereby ac- centuating the competition between be-tween livestock and game for the available browse. Reseeding of grasses on overused over-used ranges has helped the livestock live-stock situation in many cases and probably had an indirect effect on browse normally used by big game. Yet the browse-type browse-type plants have continued to disappear or be depleted on many areas. Limited data from minor previous pre-vious experiments will be incorporated incor-porated in the present work. It is expected that a number of major pilot plantings will be made in critical range areas. Game and range managers are agreed that artificial revegata-tion revegata-tion of game forage is a neces sity on many ranges if game herds are to be maintained at huntable populations in the future. fut-ure. Sportsmen, stockmen, and all others have a big stake in the final success of this project. It will be watched with interest over the three or more years needed to bring It to a conclusion. |