Reseeding the Range by Airplane

Abstract

D URISG the past two decades there have been tremendous advances in aeronautical developments. Aside from transportation, the airplane has been used in crop seeding and dusting, predator control, fire suppression, mapping and many other operations which have captured the interest of agricultural and land management agencies. Vast and inaccessible areas which characterize the land under the care and protection of government agencies have offered a fert,ile field for research in the use of airplanes in land management activities. In this respect, the revegetation of depleted and burned over ranges has been a particular challenge. Millions of acres of both federal and private land are so denuded that management alone is insufficient to restore them. These ranges and watersheds must be reseeded artificially, but the topography and extent of this land prohibits the use of ordinary farm implements, even provided the labor and materials could be made available to do the work. The initial work in the use of airplanes for range revegetation quickly indicated that this method was the fastest method of broadcasting known to man, and that it could be used on otherwise unworkable areas. The results, however, were far below expectations and disclosed that a multitude of technical problems had to be solved. It was found that wind and air currents drifted t,he seed and it did not always fall on the area intended. Pilots were unable to cover an area without passing over the same course twice or leaving unseeded gaps. Birds, rodents and insects consumed much of the broadcast seed. Much of the seed was washed and