Show airplane seeding Tests made on idaho range experimental flights in idaho under the jurris jurisdiction diction of the de dc parti parturient rient of the interior have shown that the broadcasting of seed pellets by airplane is a potential though not a guaranteed successful method of replenishing vegetation on millions of acres of depleted range land land in the west secretary J A krug said today preliminary reports orr on aerial pellet re seeding operations by the bureau of land manage ment on acres of burned over land in the thorn creek area north of gooding indicate that more speed in coverage better seed protection and greather grea seeding 1 results might be attained thru further improvements in ing equipment and materials used in the test the secretary announced that the university of idaho would be invited to cooperate with the department irr ire further studies on the methods method s and results of palletized re seeding of the idaho range land of denuded range areas is one of the major problems confronting the bureau of land management in its administration of the more than acres of public range land which provides I 1 forage for approximately head of livestock annual ly the use of the airplane for the distribution of seeds over wide areas has been the subject of experimentation peri by the bureau for the past few years frankly admitting that the aerial planting of palletized seeds is still in the trial and error stage of development bureau director marion clawson today explained that the idaho experiments included the combining of seeds of crested wheat grass and clover I 1 native clay and phosphate fertilizer lizer into pellets of 38 and ra V inch I 1 es in size and the discharge of these pellets from planes flying at altitudes ranging from to feet some difficulties were encountered in the preparation of i satisfactory pellets aad the sowing was not completed in time to 1 permit determination of the degree I 1 of seed germination resulting from the flights the report further points out that the idaho experimental areas on thorn creek and rattlesnake butte presented problems representative senta tive of those founds fo in rangelands aggregating more than terr ten milli oin acres in idaho and ore gon most of the area needing the treatment is too rough for ground methods the costs of of on ground methods too high in relation to values achieved and ground methods too slow for the size of the job to be done clawson said for I 1 example it is estimated that it will take years to reseed the acre area if speedy low cost airplane technique cannot be utilized for the job the need for forage replenishment in the experimental areas is shown by the fact that all lands irr in J the idaho seeding project have been under continuous grazing use since early times probably at least as far back as 1870 nearby hagerman valley along the snake river contained one of the earliest settlements tle ments in idaho and the bennett hills range provided summer feed for livestock of that settlement forage depletion due to overuse over use is thought to date back to 1900 or before although both sheep and cattle have used the area before 1900 and still continue to use luse it |