OCR Text |
Show RESEEDING PROGRAM IN UTAH-NEVADA UTAH-NEVADA SHOWS GOOD RESULTS (From Ely Record) , A group consisting of C. W. Hodgson and J. H. Wittwer, agricultural agri-cultural extension agents for White Pine and Claik counties; : Walter Inwood of - the Kennecottj Copper corporation, and Forest j Supervisor A. E. Briggs, recently looked over some very interesting interest-ing range and watershed reseed-ing reseed-ing projects in Nevada and south-1 ern and western Utah, where the soil, vegetation and annual rainfall rain-fall are quite similar. A very interesting wheat grass planting was found near the Desert Des-ert Branch experiment station in Wah Wah valley, winch is doing well in a white sage area, and where the annual rainfall is approximately ap-proximately six inches, which is a little more than half of the average aver-age rainfall in Steptoe valley. An interesting range reseeding project was found at Benmore, Utah. This is a 2,S00-acre project which was developed cooperatively by the forest service, soil conservation conser-vation service and the Utah Agricultural Agri-cultural college. The area is abandoned aban-doned dry farm land which has been reclaimed by sagebrush and cheat grass. For experimental purposes the area was fenced in 28 100-acre enclosures and planted to crested wheat grass. After the grass is well established the pastures pas-tures are grazed in various degrees of intensity and seasons. The cattle cat-tle are weighed in and out of the pastures to obtain weight records. Cattle using contiguous outside sagebrush and cheat grass range are weighed at the beginning and end of the same periods as the pasture use. Cattle grazed on the crested wheat pastures for a period of 68 days beginning on April 25 gained 1.83 pounds per day. The cattle grazed on the outside sagebrush-cheat . grass range gained one pound per day. Cattle on the crested wheat grass pastures gained gain-ed 56.44 pounds per head more than the cattle grazed on the sagebrush-cheat grass range during the 68-day period. The intensity of grazing use on the crested wheat grass pastures was 1.33 acres per cow month. The use on the sagebrush-cheat grass range was 10 acres per cow month, or approximately seven times more area covered as in the crested wheat grass pastures. Another significant feature noted in the' pastures is that there is no encroachment en-croachment of cheat grass in the crested wheat stand's, while thriving thriv-ing stands of cheat grass were noted on the unplanted areas. The average annual rainfall in this area is said to be approximately 11 inches against approximately 10.15 inches in Steptoe valley. Other successful range reseeding projects were seen producing-heavy producing-heavy yields of crested wheat and j brome grass forage at the Great. Basin Range experiment station : near Ephraim, Utah. These plant-; ings are on lands reclaimed from sagebrush-cheat - grass with low grazing capacity. j Experiments in range reseeding by the Intermountain Forest and Range experiment station have j shown that there are certain im-: portant methods which must be I followed to insure successful range plantings. One of these is a properly-prepared seed bed and proper j coverage of seed. Removal of much of the competition for moisture mois-ture by other less-valuable plants also is important, as is total protection pro-tection from- grazing use for at least one year after planting to insure establishment of the planted species, and proper grazing use after establishment to insure perpetuation per-petuation of the stand. Experiments have clearly shown that with proper methods of planting plant-ing and the use of adaptable spe- cies of range plants ana proper grazing use that large areas of depleted de-pleted or partly-depleted range lands can be made to produce from 10 to 20 times -moie good range forage. This is evidenced by the Ellison creek planting in big sage and rabbit brush hinds in 1U-12 by the forest; service. There are other planting's on private and public lands in White Pine county which are showing up well. Many stockmen are interested in range reseeding. The Nevada forest for-est will reseed 500 to 600 acres of range this fall, according to Supervisor Super-visor A. E. Briggs. |