stances where an occasional plant base or small plant had been left standing, growth was continuing. The new reproduction measured a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch high, and the few old plants left standing measured 1 or 111⁄2 inches high.

RANGE RECOVERY

The beginning of lichen reproduction takes place one or two years following denudation. Reproduction comes in best where the ground has been cleared of the matted growth, giving the young plants a chance to develop. Where the top of the plant is cropped, a growth of offshoots occurs which will probably result in a bushy, deformed top.

Cutting or cropping the lichen cover results in considerable damage, by killing a large proportion of the growth. The number of plants killed seems to be in direct proportion to the degree of cropping or grazing. Even light cropping or tramping may result in considerable damage. Much trampling in summer when the plants are dry and brittle may entirely kill out the cover. This means that the winter ranges must have complete protection from grazing during late spring, the summer, and early fall, or particularly when the surface is thawed and the lichens are dry and brittle. During winter, on the other hand, the lichens have regained their moist consistency and the ground is frozen with the base of the plant, thus offering considerable protection against ready destruction. The quadrat observations apply to coast tundras, where it would seem that recovery of the lichen range following full cropping may take possibly 15 or 20 years. On higher ground, where a dry, rocky soil offers less favorable conditions for good growth, undoubtedly recovery will take much longer, perhaps as much as 25 or even 30 years. The rate of recovery of a lichen range depends very much on the site conditions.

RANGE FIRES

One of the greatest sources of injury to range and losses of forage in Alaska is in fires, which in most cases are deliberately set or are due to carelessness. Tundra fires along the coast are common, and burned-over range areas may be frequently found. Fires are often set by prospectors to clear off the vegetation and thus expose the underlying ground and rock or by Eskimos in an effort to be rid of mosquitoes. They are also caused by carelessly leaving a camp fire burning or tossing away a lighted match or cigarette.

Possibly on account of the immensity of the country and the sparse population the injury by fire does not appear very impressive nor a need of its suppression important. It has not, perhaps, been called sufficiently to people's attention in the past, although a Territorial law is in effect providing penalty for the deliberate setting of range fires. What is needed for Alaska is a general fire-prevention program, and in that connection a wide, educational propaganda against forest and range fires, particularly in the northern and western sections of the Territory, reaching the Eskimos through the schools. Damage to range by fire involves not only loss of forage and trees but also of game and fur animals, since the small ground animals as well as the cover of vegetation are destroyed by the fire.

The damage to lichen range is particularly serious. It may take a burned-over lichen area as much as 25 years to come back; or where so badly burned that the cover of humus is destroyed, the changed site conditions may result in a recovered stand of inferior species, or virtually in a permanent removal of the lichens, so far as practical grazing use is concerned. In view of the importance of the lichen areas for winter grazing, it is vital to all reindeer men to guard against fires; and because of the damage to game and fur animals. and to tree growth, it is the concern of everyone that fires be prevented and fire protection sought.

CARRYING CAPACITY OF RANGE

WINTER REQUIREMENTS

Brief studies of carrying capacity conducted on a range in the Norton Sound section indicate a requirement of 30 acres for each reindeer for the yearlong period. This, however, does not allow for a recovery period for the lichen areas under full cropping; consequently, a higher yearlong acreage must be allowed. For the six months of summer grazing, 10 to 15 acres a head are required, and in some cases 8 acres, but for winter grazing on lichen forage the requirement is much higher for proper range use and protection. As regards carrying capacity generally, winter grazing requires a larger acreage than summer for a number of reasons:

First, the lichens which constitute the principal winter food are, as mentioned, wholly different from the herbaceous vegetation making up the summer forage, in nature, habits of growth, and reaction to injury. By reason of these differences greater care must be taken in grazing lichen areas to avoid total destruction of the individual plants or checking their continued healthy growth and reproduction.

In the second place, the inland winter areas and top country generally are not so well covered with vegetation as the summer areas adjacent to the coast or lying along the lower foothills. Much of this top country may be almost barren in places, or the lichen growth of patchy occurrence. In some cases only a third or a half of the total winter range may be available for grazing use. The average summer range, on the other hand, is usually of full cover and the total acreage is available for grazing. Thus an increased acreage is required for winter grazing to provide sufficient forage.

Further, reindeer graze more quietly over a smaller area in winter than in summer, and remain for the most part in one general locality. This means closer utilization and greater danger of overgrazing. To offset this and to guard against overuse, a larger acreage must be provided to put into effect a scheme of deferred and rotation grazing.

All three factors, then, point to the necessity of a larger acreage requirement under winter grazing, although the second factor may result in considerable variation in the final estimate given as between different localities.

CARRYING CAPACITY ESTIMATES

For the reindeer ranges, as now known, a carrying capacity of 10. or 15 acres a head is indicated for summer grazing plus 30 to 45

acres for winter. Yearlong, this requirement would become 40 to 60 acres. The extensive reconnaissance thus far conducted indicates that 40 to 45 acres a head will probably apply generally to the Norton Sound section and south, and 50 or 60 acres for the Seward Peninsula and north. The Seward Peninsula, for example, now carries about 83,000 reindeer, and from computations of acreage and on a basis of a 60-acre requirement, it has a future carrying capacity of 200,000 head. A 60-acre requirement is fixed for the peninsula section at this time to insure a safe basis for stocking. Later, if it should be found that the range is not being fully utilized, following careful inspection of the individual allotments, a gradual increase may be made until full capacity is reached.

If, as indicated by the present studies, it may take a depleted lichen range from 15 to 30 years to recover, the importance of carefully protecting the winter ranges becomes readily apparent. Some system of deferred and rotation grazing must be devised, and sufficient acreage provided to make it practicable. Under a permit system, based on an estimated carrying capacity for each allotment, it would be advisable first to proceed on the basis of 60 acres a head, and then later, should underutilization be found, gradually to increase the stocking to full capacity, as determined by careful and continuous inspection.

On the basis of a 40 to 60 acre requirement, the total available range in Alaska suitable for grazing should support 3,000,000 reindeer. The coast section now occupied by herds should when fully stocked carry 1,000,000 reindeer.

MANAGEMENT

The reindeer herds in Alaska are rapidly increasing in size, so that better and proper methods of management are more important. Former methods of handling applicable to small herds are no longer sufficient; better and modern methods to conform to the larger herds must now be adopted. Under proper management and organization the reindeer industry has a promising future, but a decided change toward better methods must now take place if full progress is to be maintained.

RANGE CONTROL AND REGULATION

As a natural development of the growing use of the open range, some system of range control and grazing regulation is certain sooner or later to be established. Such a system, which is necessary if a permanent industry is to be built up, would contemplate the division of range into allotments, as determined by natural units, each owner being given a permit to graze a certain number of head upon a certain unit. In the presence of numerous small owners, this will require that reindeer be held in cooperative herds and that the owners organize into cooperative reindeer associations or livestock companies.

To avoid future difficulty it is undoubtedly best that Eskimoowned and white-owned herds be kept separate as far as practicable. In instances of mixed ownership, where controversies arise, every effort should be made toward readjustment, and the herds should be separated and combined with others to obtain uniform ownership.

In some cases, where such a move may not be feasible at this time in full justice to all concerned, a cooperative herd by white and Eskimo owners must continue. But the attempted splitting up of a natural grazing unit, by dividing the herd and allowing the two or more parts to remain on the same unit, is impracticable.

With an allotment system in operation, definite assignment of range among owners may be made and a protective management adopted for each grazing unit. Such management would involve stocking the range on the basis of actual carrying capacity and proper control and distribution of stock in order to insure a uniform utilization based on the forage requirement. Careful herding, construction of range improvements, and eventually the adoption of range salting are important aids to proper control.

SUMMER RANGE MANAGEMENT

Protective management on summer ranges is a comparatively simple problem, and a ready solution is to be found since it involves a known quantity, namely, herbaceous and shrub vegetation, as grasses, sedges, herbs, and browse. Valuable information that applies directly is available in the publications on forage and range studies that have been conducted for many years on the grazing areas of the western United States. The principles determined by these studies apply to Alaska as well and may be followed in working out the management scheme. Proper seasonal grazing, deferred and rotation grazing, open grazing, and proper distribution of stock over the range must all be put into practice.

WINTER RANGE MANAGEMENT

The problem on winter range is more difficult. From the nature of the lichen forage it is evident that the treatment in range management will have to be much different from that applicable to such rapid-growing forage crops as grasses, sedges, herbs, and browse. Although one or two croppings of herbs and grasses may be safely permitted each season under a rotation grazing scheme of three years, without seriously injuring the growth or lowering a continued maximum forage yield, this could not be permitted with the slow-growing lichen vegetation. Recovery from cropping in this case requires not one season or part of a season, but several years. Instead of a three-year deferred and rotation grazing scheme, a more extended system will have to be worked out and applied.

Management of the winter reindeer ranges calls for a deferred and rotation scheme of grazing, but to what degree each area should be grazed before deferring is still uncertain. Observations suggest that probably one of two things must be done: (1) Either close utilization must be followed or (2) there must be a very light cropping. Close utilization to remove all cover down to the frozen ground will get the greatest value out of each crop and will open up the cover for readier reproduction. It will also be the easier method for the grazier.

Light cropping, on the other hand, would require greater movement of the herd, constant changing from one area to another, and