RESTORING THE RANGE BY RESEEDING

C. Kenneth Pearse, A. Perry Plummer, D. A. Savage

FULL RESTORATION of much of the range land in need of improvement will require more than better grazing management. About 80 million acres of range land have been so badly depleted that they will have to be reseeded artificially if they are to recover in our generation. Satisfactory methods have not yet been developed for reseeding all situations, but progress is being made. Already more than 5 million acres have been planted.

Range reseeding is usually done on an extensive basis on lands unsuited for cultivation and at comparatively low cost. Plowing, except to reduce competition from undesirable plants, is usually not attempted; seedbeds are not generally prepared, except for reseeding abandoned cultivated fields in the Southern Great Plains.

On most reseeded ranges, correct grazing management alone is relied upon to maintain forage production, although in much of the South and on annual type ranges of California and in other areas where soils are poor, some fertilization may also be needed.

Reseeding, to be most effective, should be done where the chance of success is good and where increased forage will help most in making better use of the land and in increasing livestock production. For each area to be seeded, success depends on knowing what to seed, when to seed, and how to seed economically.

Practical answers to those questions are available on several important ranges, especially on depleted big sagebrush sites of the Intermountain Region, on abandoned cultivated lands in the plains and foothills, on mountain meadows below good condition it, other parts of the West, and more limitedly on the other depleted ranges.

On some other range situations, Promising leads have been developed by research, but are only now being tested on a practical scale. On others, research has made only a beginning. Here plantings of only small test areas, until proved procedures are found, will eliminate extensive and costly failures and save seed and effort for more productive planting elsewhere.

Even where specifications are available, sites for reseeding should be chosen with care. Ranges that have enough good forage remnants so that they can be restored rather promptly by better management alone seldom need seeding. Those whose production must always be low because of poor soil or unfavorable climate seldom produce enough forage to pay the cost. Where the valuable forage plants have been largely lost, but the good topsoil retained, the chance for success and the opportunity for improvement consistent with the cost is greatest.

A good appraisal of the site for reseeding may usually be made by observation of the terrain, the existing plant cover, and the soil. In semiarid parts of the West, experienced stockmen often can select the pockets, valleys, or parts of valleys that catch a little more rainfall, have subirrigation, or are subject to beneficial natural flooding. Where the range vegetation (even if composed of inferior forage plants) has a vigorous appearance and good color and makes good height growth and heavy seed crops, the site is apt to be above average.

Dark-colored, friable soil and a covering of humus and vegetable litter usually indicates a favorable site. Thus, where big sagebrush is dense, and the plants large and healthy, good stands of grass can be obtained once the sagebrush is removed. On the Fishlake National Forest in Utah, for example, 500 acres that was supporting a flourishing stand of vigorous big sagebrush and rabbitbrush furnished forage for only 8 or 9 cows for a 4-month season. Three years after it was reseeded to wheat-grasses and bromes at a cost of $3.22 an acre it provided forage for 100 cows for 4 months.

Reseeding will give greatest returns where it can best aid in meeting seasonal shortages in good forage. In most of the Intermountain West, for example, early spring forage is inadequate and sowing crested wheatgrass, an early spring- and fall-growing species, provides valuable grazing at that period.

Even in the Southern Great Plains, where the native grasses are noted for nutritive qualities, forage value drops markedly from early maturity and into winter dormancy. At Woodward, Okla., ranges seeded to western wheat-grass can provide nutritious forage throughout the fall, winter, and early spring. They have supported two to five times more cattle than nearby unneeded range, produced 50 to 80 percent more gain per head, saved 50 to 97 percent of the protein supplements required, and yielded three to eight times as much gain per acre.

In the South and Southeast, reseeding of fire lanes and other portions of piney woods ranges to adapted grasses that retain their protein and mineral content longer than the native species prolongs the period of good grazing, saves supplements, and permits better cattle gains.

Reseeding should be done only where good grazing management can be provided. Reseeded ranges need protection from grazing until the seedlings are established and moderate grazing in the proper season thereafter.

The success and productivity of artificially seeded ranges depends largely on planting species that are adapted to the local climate and that will persist under reasonable grazing use. Probably of first importance on most western ranges is the amount of precipitation and its seasonal distribution.

Less than 8 inches annually, even in the northern part of the western range country, is generally too little to justify the risk of large-scale reseeding. Even with as much as 12 inches annually, a considerable part of it must be available during the growing season, and very drought-resistant plants, like crested wheatgrass or some of the love-grasses, must be used. Generally where precipitation is more than 15 inches and enough falls during the growing season, a number of forage plants, if soils and other conditions are satisfactory, are adapted.

Grasses withstand dry periods best when dormant. Hence it is necessary in each region to plant those that normally make their growth during the season when moisture is available. Where soil moisture is available in the cool spring and fall seasons, as in the valleys, foothills, and mesas of the Intermountain West, the wheatgrasses, bluegrasses, bromes, fescues, and other cool-season grasses can be used. Where summer rainfall is the rule, as in the Southwest, warm-season plants native gramas, buffalograss, and the introduced lovegrasses are best.

Low winter temperatures may limit the species that can be planted successfully. In the northern range country, only hardy native species ( like slender and western wheatgrass, and mountain brome) or hardy introductions from comparable latitudes (like crested wheatgrass and Russian wild-rye from Siberia or smooth brome from Hungary) can survive.

In the Southern Great Plains and the Southwest, besides such natives as blue grama and side-oats grama, buffalograss, and sand lovegrass, three introduced lovegrasses from South Africa are promising. Of these, weeping lovegrass is the most cold-resistant, succeeding in northern Oklahoma and northern New Mexico. Boer lovegrass has less cold resistance, and Lehmann's least of the three. Since, however, both of these are more drought-resistant than weeping lovegrass, both cold resistance and drought resistance influence the selection for any specific area.

In the deep South moderate winter temperatures permit the use of such semitropical grasses as Bermuda, Bahia, and Dallisgrass, and among the legumes, the lespedezas, and crimson and white clovers. Each of these has its own cold tolerance which strictly limits its use. Cold-resistant strains of some are being developed by selection and breeding. Plants for reseeding in the piney woods also need the ability to grow in shade, under partial covering of fallen pine needles, and to withstand burning and competition from vigorous native grasses of lower value.

Mixtures of a few adapted species with similar palatabilities and seasons of growth usually take best advantage of differences in site conditions which may change frequently and sharply between parts of any large area. A single species may be largely eliminated by disease, pests, extreme drought, or winterkilling. In such instances, if several species are used together some will likely be much less affected than others and will fill in and maintain production of the stand. Mixtures also generally increase the nutritive value of the forage. Where the legumes are adapted, one or two should be included to add variety to the forage and add to soil nitrogen.

However, pure stands of species that differ in their season of usefulness and palatability, and so require different management, are often better than mixtures. Where both the cool-weather and the warm-weather grasses are adapted, separate seedings can be grazed when each is most nutritious. Each class can be managed according to its needs. Neither competes to the disadvantage of the other. Highly palatable species that cannot withstand heavy grazing, like sand lovegrass in the Southern Great Plains, can be maintained only if sown in pure stands or with other palatable species. Comparatively unpalatable but productive and nutritious grasses such as many of the wheatgrasses are best sown in Pure stands or with species of similar palatability, and then grazed heavily enough to utilize them and maintain their succulence.

Source of seed is extremely important in successful establishment, productivity, and persistence of reseeded stands, especially for native species. Locally grown seed from plants that have proved their adaptability is preferred. Slender wheatgrass seed harvested in the Northern Great Plains, for example, is well suited for planting there, but in Utah produces small plants with little forage and no seed.

In the Plains it has been found that forage yield and length of growing period are greatly increased by using southern sources of seed. It is advisable there to use, at any given latitude, seed harvested south of that latitude. Seed may be used several hundred miles north of its source without much danger of winterkilling. Blue grama seed from northern Oklahoma, for example, has survived the winters in southern Alberta and produced several times the forage yield of Alberta blue grama.

In contrast with this, seed of most native grasses, when planted south of their source, produce plants decidedly lacking in vigor, production, and period of growth. Colorado and Kansas sources of blue grama and buffalo-grass, for example, produce in Oklahoma and Texas much less than half as much forage as plants from local seed.

Not only adapted species, but also adapted strains, must be chosen to give best results. Recent research has indicated immense possibilities for improving range grasses through genetics and selection. Some selections of smooth brome, for example, yielded under range conditions in central Utah five times as much forage as other tried strains. Differences-in such important characteristics as leafiness, earliness or lateness of growth, seed production, case of harvest, resistance to drought, cold, and disease have been found among selections of the grasses so far studied. Indications are that use of better strains can at least double forage production, make stand establishment more positive, and extend the usefulness of many species.

But proper choice of strains depends on careful consideration for each site. The most productive strain of mountain brome in the oak-brush zone of Utah, for instance, is entirely worthless in the next higher zone, where it winterkills.