Offered to all rangemen to advance the education of those faithful stewards who, as perfectly symbolized by Charlie Russell's Trail Boss, the icon of our profession and our Society, have devoted our lives to the wise use, skillful manipulation, efficient development, on-going improvement, and continuing conservation of our native grazing lands.

 
This is a presentation of photographs with accompanying descriptions of some of the most extensive and important range cover types in North America.  In addition to examples of major range plant communities (and dominant, associate, and indicator plant species) there is a review of the various units of vegetation with a historical survey of their origin and use in Range Management and Forestry.
 
Photographs and text of this work were copyrighted to insure their free fair use in the public domain. Permission was thereby granted from the author, a tax-supported public servant, to any readers to use any of this material for non-profit or other appropriate educational purposes consistent with the fair use doctrine (eg. courses or other publications in fields like Range Management, Forestry, Ecology, etc.). It will be expected that proper credit will be given by correct citation of this publication.
 
Photographs should be viewed at as high a color setting as possible (eg. 32-bit or True Color). Explanation and further details of photography and reproduction by scanning were provided in the Materials portion of Introduction.
Site Contents
 
  Historical Note on Cover Picture  
     
  Note to Reader  
     
  Introduction  
    Acknowledgements  
    Grazing Land  
    Materials  
    Names  
    Range Cover Types  
    Vegetation  
       
  Grasslands  
    California Grasslands  
    Introduced Forages  
    Meadows  
    Miscellaneous  
    Mixed Prairie  
    Palouse Prairie  
    Rough Fescue  
    Semidesert Grassland  
    Shortgrass Prairie  
    Sagebrush Shrub Steppe  
    Tallgrass Prairie (Coastal)  
    Tallgrass Prairie (Interior)  
    Tallgrass Savanna  
    True Prairie  
       
  Shrublands  
    California Chaparrel  
    Chihuhuan Desert  
    Colorado and Mojave Desert  
    Great Basin Desert  
    Miscellaneous Scrub  
    Mountain Scrub  
    Rio Grande Plains Scrub Savanna  
    Shinnery Oak  
    Sonoran Desert  
    Texas Edwards Plateau  
    Willow and Riparian Scrub  
     
     
  Woodlands and Forests  
    Aspen Types  
    Basswood and Beech Forests  
    Coast Redwood Forests  
    Hemlock and White Pine Forests  
    Juniper-Pinon Woodland  
    Intermountain Forests  
    Longleaf Pine Forests  
    Miscellaneous Forests  
    Northern Rocky Mountain Forests  
    Oak-Hickory Forests-I  
    Oak-Hickory Forests- II  
    Pacific Northwest Forests  
    Southern and Central Rocky Mountain Forest  
    Sierra, Cascade, and Coast Range Forests  
    Southern and Central Forests  
    Texas Piney Woods  
       
  Alpine  
    Alpine  
     
  Tundra  
    Tundra  
     
  Forb  
     
  Savannas and Barrens  
     
  Prologue to Literature Review  
     
  Literature Review  
    Biome  
    Organicism  
    Range Site  
    Range Type  
    Vegetation Classification  
    Vegetation Classification: A Paradigm  
     
  Literature Cited  
     
  The Eleventh Commandment  
     
  Useful Links