The author acknowledges with extra fondness and the most pleasant of memories his debt and gratitude to two Cal Foresters. Drs. Joe R. McBride, chairman of the Department of Forest Science, and Paul J. Zinke, professor emeritus of soil science and forest influences, at University of California, Berkeley made possible most of the portions dealing with the vegetation of the Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Range. Lasting friendships and professional associations between these "forest patriarchs" and the author began years ago when all were fellow faculty members. On a specially arranged visit for preparation of this work Chairman McBride graciously welcomed back a "wayward son" and generously provided room and board (by the board foot) at UC Summer Camp 2000 along with prized rare advice on where to find the priceless trophy vegetation. McBride unselfishly gave of his scarce time to see to that the author collected many examples of the mixed conifer type and got accurate information for descriptions of them. He also furnished a slide of Idaho fescue coastal prairie that was included herein. Prof. Zinke, an ole warhorse who had done some of the pioneer work of the California Soil-Vegetation Survey, took the photographer under his fatherly tutelage and furnished one-of-a-kind transportation, travel log, and tour guidance to a cornucopia of climax and seral communities. Daylong excursions to Lassen Volcanic National Park and national forests were some of the finer times of this project and resulted in such cover types as red fir, mountain hemlock, yellow pine chaparral, wet meadow, and the entire transect (full elevational range) of Sierra Nevada vegetation. Paul and Joe were outstanding "references" on forest ecology and silvicultural systems (as well as local history, most of which is not the sort that is printed). All this "fire-in-the-belly" Forestry was "leavened" with ever-helpful tips from Drs. Al Stagenberger and Jim Bertenshaw (and smoke from the latter's pipe). Such Berkeley brotherhood was essential to inclusion of many of the range types of floristically rich northern California. Just saying "thanks" for the longstanding help and friendship of these Cal Foresters fills this photographers frame with a "warm glow" (though still a remote sensing distance from flower child "touchy feely", fellows).

Dr. Walter D. Willms of Agriculture Canada and Mr. Frank J. Hecker and Mr. Troy Ormann of Land Classification Unity, Agriculture Center, in Lethbridge Alberta gave most freely of their time to provide information regarding location and details of the rough fescue foothills grasslands of the western Prairie Provinces. The openness and neighborliness of these gentlemen was a perfect match for some of the most extraordinarily beautiful range imaginable and a tribute to the best neighbor nation a country ever had.

Prof. Harold L. Osborne, University of Idaho Extension forester and manager of Flat Creek Experimental Forest, unselfishly took the author under his wing and on a personal, "practice tour" which filled in many of the details of forest and forestry in the Northern Rocky Mountain Region. This is one of the most diverse forest regions on the continent with an array of forest management practices equal to the natural diversity. Harold's professionalism; breezy, nothing-to-hide openness; and array of knowledge (especially in regards to forest communities and silvicultural systems) were hopefully reflected in the series of slides from Flat Creek. This university forest was an outstanding example of multiple use forestry and Harold is of the Pinchot breed of forester and a testament to his employer institution.

Dr. Russ Pettit, Professor of Range Management at Texas Tech University, provided indespensible insight into the shinnery oak range ecosystem. Russ spent the better part of his research career working with shin oak range and as one of the leading authorities on this climax shrubland furnished descriptions, explanations, and insights into management of this rangeland cover type that few, if any, other range scientists could have offered. Russ' friendship over a span of two decades was one of the finest examples of collegiality and professional hospitality extended to this author during the Texas phase of his study of range vegetation.

Other notable examples of forestry professionalism and extra helpful folks included Mr. Jack Puckett, retired U.S. Forest Service fuels specialist for Region One, and his cheery wife Louise. This delightful couple were volunteer hosts at the historic Lochsa Ranger Cabin and they stayed over an hour past quitting time to explain in great detail where to find relict stands of western white pine and other "secrets" of the Idaho mixed conifer forest. Another of the Pinchot breed was Mr. Bear, manager of Heyburn State Park in northern Idaho. He directed the author to the old-growth western white pine forest at Heyburn. These blister rust-resistant trees comprise some of the few remaining stands of this now rare forest cover type. Mr. Bear's knowledge, goodwill, and foresight to reserve from harvest virgin stands made it possible to show students examples of what was once -and hopefully with plant breeding will again be- some of the finest lumber-producing forests in North America.

The U.S. Forest Service came through again with priceless help in regard to the oak-hickory-shortleaf pine type in the Boston Mountains. Mr. Ralph Odegard, Range Management Specialist, and his enthusiastic staff and colleagues of the Boston Mountain Ranger District, Ozark National Forest in Ozark, Arkansas provided the author with materials regarding vegetation classification from the Forest Service "use book" as well as the Arkansas GAP analysis project.Their first-hand familarity with the general forest vegetation, specifically forest range, and of insect pests like oak borers was of great benefit.

One of the warmest receptions and some of the most knowledgable assistance ever received came from Mr. Jim Caldwell, Public Affairs Officer, and Mr. Phillip E. Hyatt, Botanist, of the Kisatchie National Forest in Pineville, Louisiana. The entire segment devoted to the longleaf pine cover type is a tribute to these two men. Without their kind, extremely informative, never-too-busy-to-help "rescue" the author would have been roving the woods of western Louisiana without finding the "crown jewel" of the remaining longleaf pine-pinehill bluestem range.

Special thanks to Mr. Glen Snell, retired from Soil Conservation Service, for detailed discussion of Iuka IV eastern gamagrass and the "storey behind the storey" of this amazing cultivar, and for doing his part to preserve germ plasm of one of the most productive temperate forage grasses ever developed. It was a pleasure to experience the unquenchable zeal of one of the old-timers and true believers.

Mr. Jack Henson, another range conservationist with the Soil (Natural Resources) Conservation Service, spent over 30 years in the Texas Chihuhuan Desert, Edwards Plateau, and Rio Grande Plains (before the NRCS "computered me out") and shared benefit of his experience in this vast area with the author. Mr. Henson provided a very informative explanation of the unique range vegetation (a mixed scrub-grass savanna) and range sites in the transition zone (ecotone) where these three vegetational (land resource) areas "overlap" or merge into "hodge-podge habitats.

Dr. James Bradley Johnson, Lecturer, Colorado State University provided help in identification of several rush and sedge species in the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Allan Nelson, Assistant Porfessor of Botany, Tarleton State University "networked" with bryologists to identify some of the species of true mosses included in this publication. Mr. Mike Pittman and Mr. Scott Lerich provided background information on geology and vegetation of Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area that contributed to a portion of the Chihuhuan Desert section.

Special acknowledgment is due Dr. Jim Sprinkle, University of Arizona Area Extension Animal Science Specialist, for directions and details on locations of the ponderosa pine-Arizona fescue forest range that made it possible to include this remarkable cover type. Mr. Jimmy Paz, manager of Sabal Palm Grove Audubon Center & Sanctuary, answered questions, helped with basic plant identification, and provided a partial list of plant species all of which contributed immensely to inclusion of one of the most unique and resticted forest range types in North America.

Enthusiasts on tours sponsored by North American Prairie Conferences proved to be some of the most knowledgeable, if less formally educated, students of grasslands "available anywhere". These folk, who tend to be biologists from obscure Midwestern colleges and junior colleges or state park systems, often provided insights and observations on the true and tallgrass prairie types that are not standard fare among professional rangemen. They were an enlightening crowd of individualists.

Countless public servants with agencies ranging from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and National Park Service to local and state parks provided invaluable directions, tips, etc. on where to find relict and typical vegetation of range types and sites. In visits to local offices of conservation and ranger districts, as much as headquarters of National Parks, the devoted personnel were never too busy to provide help, some of it better than others. Local ranchers, cowhands, loggers, sportsmen, and even bed-and-breakfast- proprietors were typically the most reliable sources for sound suggestions. There is something about a cowboy armed with a camera that brings forth a font of information from local denizens when they learn the trespasser is interested only in "the woods" or "my pasture".

Of course, I am indebted for much of my knowledge to numerous professors and, in later years, many colleagues at the five land grant university systems I was privileged to be a part of. This debt is even greater to fellow graduate students and, above all, to the "little people" like shepherds, herdsmen, field technicians, and shop mechanics who know best where to get the "really good shots".

Dr. Lori Hidinger, program manager of the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative of the Ecological Society of America, was a tremendous help in directing me to Web Site addresses for The Nature Conservancy United States National Vegetation Classification System and the Vegetation classification Panel of the Ecological Society of America. More importantly, our personal discussions at the 1999 SRM annual meeting and over the telephone enabled me to better understand this major project in classification of our nations' vegetation. Lori's rapid response to requests attest to the professionalism of the ESA even if the system they are helping develop is not very compatible with the vegetation cover types of the SRM and Society of American Foresters.

Dr.William A. Laycock, Professor of Range Management, University of Wyoming encouraged the author to express his views that more recent interpretations of plant succession such as state-and-transition models were consistent with and additions to the classic Clementsian paradigm rather than replacements of this traditional interpretation of vegetation development.

Mr. Brian Moran of the Western Ecology Division, Environmentap Protection Agency, Corvallis, Oregon graciously and unquestioningly sent "droves" of maps of Ecoregions (Levels III and IV) of many states--including most of the Western Range Region--in rapid response to my requests which made possible inclusion of these ecological units in the publication. Later Miss Beth Timmons, GIS analyst, of Western Ecology Division assumed the role of ecoregion map supplier. These maps were invaluable in delineating and permitting inclusion of ecoregions in descriptions and hierarchial arrangement of range types.(Whoever said that agency bureaucrats were unresponsive to needs of their fellow citizens never dealt with public servants like Brian Moran and Beth Timmons.)

Mr. Joel Tuhy, Director of Conservation Science, The Nature Conservancy of Utah, kindly went to the trouble to send the author an indespensible list of natural plant communities for Utah and Nevada. This work was a great aid in dealing with Great Basin range vegetation. Mr. Marty Bray, manager of McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge (Jefferson County, Texas), was very knowledgeable about the coastal marshes and explained to the author details of salinity relations among the various bulrush or tule species. Bray's insight combined with his higher education and practical experience contributed much to the treatment of coastal tallgrass prarire and marsh vegetation.

Mr. Broden Staples, branch manager of the Enterprise car rental agency at the Spokane airport pointed the author to location of some the prime channeled scablands ranges of eastern Washington. It is remarkable that some of the best tips in regard to range vegetation come from some of the seemingly least likely sources. Miss Terrace Olson, botanist, Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests provided invaluable insights and assistance in regard to plant identification, species composition, vegetational change and development, and general information on forests of the Northern Cascades.

It is to the family of Tarleton State University to whom most of the credit for this presentation must go. Miss Barbara Schmidt of the media department was always personable, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful in demonstrating use of the latest computer technology. Her friendship and professionalism over the last 15 years has been most rewarding. Mr. Kevin Kenworthy, Dr. Rob Rhykerd, Dr. Mark Yu, and Dr. Erda Wang are younger faculty members and of the generation that grew up with computers so it fell their lot to continually rescue me from the anguish of machinery that I know next to nothing about (and care less). Dr. Yu was especially helpful in this regard. Mr. Chad Alleva was the graduate student counterpart of this "computer-literate" generation as he did more than anyone to allow me to complete my mission. (I did uphold my role in instruction by teaching Mr. Alleva some appropriate terminology as I reminded him that computers, like mules, "Don't understand nothin' but cussin'.")

Miss Jennifer Heirman, MS student, provided one of the most essential tasks in the painstaking--and always cheerful--scanning of slides onto disks for transferal to the CD ROM. Her successor was Mr. Justin Parker who managed to scan in several hundred slides in between sampling woody vegetation of the Cross Timbers. The lasting friendship with these young people remains a pleasure. Mr. John Bird, graduate student in a neighboring department, tried to do some editing on the second edition; there is something to be said for the "college try". The computer skill of Miss Jana Jordon, Work-Study student at Tarleton State, proved of incaluable value at certain critical points in this effort.

The respect and conservative compliment for this publication by former Dean of Agriculture and Technology, Dr. Don Knotts, was especially appreciated for its sincerity and appropriate dignified expression.

A special "thank you" to the helpful staff of Tarleton's Dick Smith Library, especially to Miss Linda Nichols, Cathy Hare, and Jane Dickson. Dedicated staffers like these and the marvelous arrangement of interlibrary loan enable those of us at small, backwater teaching colleges to have access to knowledge comparable to faculty at real universities (even if the availability is slower and half the stuff has to be sent back for proper photocopying).

Miss Kay L. Kersh did the entire formatting for the first edition of this project. Even if she does "overload her boat" such that academic projects compete with countless extracurricular events her name is deservedly on the title page where its presence says it all. Miss Jennifer Rodriguez and Dr. Mark Yu were Kay's talented and most willing successors for a brief period. Ginny Vest and Catherine Packard provided brief help (when they felt like it).

Mrs. Teresa Svacina and Miss Shelayna Sanderson were ultimately the two people whose professionalism, charm, patience, and computer skills enabled publication of the second and third editions of the project. Words are inadequate for praise and thanks to these lovely ladies. Their names as the "second generation" formatters is the most understated acknowledgment herein. They were followed in a much more brief and less demanding but necessary sucessional order by Mr. Thiagarajan Ramakrishnan and Prashant Amatya. Miss Sara Best of the author's "home department" performed yeoman's service that was indispensible in completing later editions of Range Types.

Lastly, Dr. Larry Rittenhouse, professor of Range Science at Colorado State University, is most graciously thanked for providing the idea of this project. To Larry must go the credit for suggesting a publication that will hopefully serve those students of Agriculture who have not had the opportunity to experience firsthand the raw grandeur of our natural pastures and see the diverse array of native vegetation on what is generally regarded as the continent most manifestly endowed with natural resources.

The author must specify clearly that while he received indispensable help from the many individuals named this was voluntary and out of friendship. The author obtained essentially zero institutional help and none at the department or college level except from former Dean of Agriculture & Technology Dr. Don Knotts whose good-natured and low-key but sincere modest support were most encouraging. The Tarleton State University webmaster office is woefully understaffed, and while the author is indebted to Miss Lea Schultz the lack of adequate personnel whenever she was absent left a void that often resulted in delays that "trajected" out to two weeks. It was only friends and colleagues of the author that made this collection possible. Tarleton State University as an organization provided no help or encouragement, often the contrary.

For example, the prudish, mindless, and constitutionally questionable censorship practices regarding use of the agriculture computer laboratory coupled with the disrespectful treatment and the lack of collegiality by the Tarleton computer services group set into motion a chain of events that delayed publication of an expanded, revised edition of this web publication by five and a half months.

Aid from the computer unit at Tarleton (so-called "Information Resources, Academic Computing Resources") was invariably short of service and long on a relatively high level of incompetence and long response time during the first two editions of this publication. For instance when new, more powerful computers were installed the out-sourcing technician who installed these computers informed "Information Resources" that the hand-me-down computer (but at least, and long last, one with a zip-drive) passed along to this author had a bad hard-drive that needed replacement. When six weeks later nothing was done the author's secretary called Information Resources. Their people came and, as typical, looked and did nothing. Three weeks later the hard-drive cratered and Information Resources was again notified. This time these folks took the computer and installed a new hard-drive. Then they could not reinstall the programs that had been on the old, crashed hard-drive. Two students came and the second one finally installed most of the programs that had been on the old C drive. Then the computer would not print. Now we were into spring break and still no functional computer after Computing Resources had been advised by an impartial knowledgeable technician as to this problem one week before start of the semester. Had Computing Resources gotten on top of the problem when told of it by an impartial party and through proper communication channels there would have been no down time at all. As it was however one half of a semester was required to perform a routine maintenance operation. If this is not incompetence the author has been blessed not to see incompetence.

In subsequent years and for later editions the computing unit became much better staffed and more proficient and responsive to computer-users. Mr. Stephen Wilson was a courteous, extremely knowledgable computer specialist who provided invaluable assistance on several occasions. Mr. Wilson did much to restore confidence in a bureaucratic unit that had heretofore been long on titles and short on installation skills and trouble-shooting. Later, and still under leadership of Mr. Wilson, more outstanding, dedicated people were added to this inadequated funded unit. Mr. Mr. Jeff Stanfield, Technology Support Specialist, was one such super-capable member who provided perfect service.

Tarleton State University per se with its plethora of inept, self-serving bureaucrats interfered painfully, indirectly though it was, with this project. Flatulent boasts about "excellence" and "support or backing of the faculty" not withstanding, Tarleton does NOT foster excellence or even mediocrity in collegial non-interference with web authors, let alone in rendering assistance to faculty members slugging through the up-hill battle of on-line publication.

Publication of the material herein could not have been accomplished through organized campus channels and positions.

Publication was achieved only by the tactics of beg, borrow, bootleg, and bellyache, and by payment for services by the author himself with zero financial or other support from his department or college. There were literally cases when some capable, "computer literate" graduate students and Work-Study students who were being paid by the authors department played video games in the front departmental office while the author had to hire- and pay with his own money -other students to assist in completing this project.

Selfless service "above and beyond the call" by graduate students, fellow professors, and support staff (especially in the Dick Smith Library)- not university personnel shown formally and officially in channels and positions of the irrelevant university organization chart- made the material herein available to www. clientele. It was members of the Tarleton "family" who volunteered their services- not those officials who shirked their duty- and Tarleton State University as an institution- not a top-heavy organization- that enabled presentation of this reference work.

Perhaps it is expecting or asking too much of a higher education organization devoted strictly to teaching to provide formal assistance in publishing, even with an online teaching reference like this publication. If that is the case, there are two relevant and unarguable, non-debatable points. Point one: Tarleton should not ask nor expect its faculty to publish. As Mr. Shakespeare noted what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Point two: the organization should be honest enough to truthfully call itself a college (the teaching organization in higher education) and not falsely advertise or purport itself to be a university (the research organization in higher education with its origin in the German model). If Tarleton State is not going to provide the support staff and structure for scholarly publication it should replace its counterfeit use of the word "University" with the legitimate term "College" and abandon the Graduate College (the educational unit existing solely for the training of future researchers).

Personal honesty and accurate acknowledgments demanded this clarification. In regard to this web site, Tarleton State University was a paymaster, telephone line, and an address. Tarleton as an organization deserves credit for nothing else with respect to Range Types of North America.

These more obvious contributions acknowledged it remains but to state the standard that any errors, imprecise applications, mistaken interpretations, incorrect identifications, and so on are those solely of the author. I accept full blame for inaccuracies or confusion caused by faulty writing. It is emphasized that this collection was donated to the Society for Range Management. The Society did not invite, appoint to, or delegate this work; nor did it officially endorse any of the material contained herein. Comments, conclusions, opinions, perspectives, interpretations of the literature, and viewpoints are mine alone. Duly advised, "Mount Up"!

R.E. Rosiere, Professor of Range Management
Certified Professional in Rangeland Management (CP00-31)
Tarleton State University
Texas A&M University System