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Richard Stevens
Abstract-Density of pinyon and juniper trees and shrubs can be effectively reduced, large shrubs can be pruned, seedbeds can be created, and seed covered with an anchor chain pulled between two crawler tractors. Positioning of the tractor, chain size, and modification to the chain can produce a multitude of results. Seeding is most often done aerially using fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft.
Anchor chains are primarily used to uproot trees and shrubs, to create seedbeds, to top or prune large shrubs, and to cover seed. Anchor chains from large destroyer or cruiser ships, 40- to 160-lb per link and 90 to 350 ft long are employed. To be effective, swivels are required at both ends and are recommended additionally, at least in the middle of the chain.
Anchor chains are pulled behind two crawler tractors traveling parallel to each other. To be effective, chains should not be stretched taut, but must be dragged in a loose, J-shaped, U-shaped, or half circle pattern. The halfcircle configuration provides the greatest swath width, lowest percentage kill, and should only be used in mature, evenage tree stands. Kill and disturbance increases as the width ofthe J- or U-shaped pattern decreases. As the proportion of trees and shrubs change, chaining width should decrease or increase in order to achieve the desired amount of kill. The heavier the link, the better the chain stays on the ground, and the higher the percentage kill (Stevens and Monsen,
In press).
Chaining commonly occurs. on slopes of up to 50 percent slope but has been successfully accomplished on 65 percent slope (Vallentine 1989; Stevens and Monsen, In press).
Chaining can occur up and down or across the slope without adversely affecting watershed values.
Success in removing trees and shrubs varies with species composition, age structure, density, and rooting habit. Trees in mature, even-age stands can be killed more effectively and efficiently than in uneven-age stands. Young trees less than 48 inches tall may not be killed with single or double chaining because the chain may ride over them. Small junipers can be uprooted and killed more effectively than small pinyons that tend to be more flexible than junipers.
In: Monsen, Stephen B.; Stevens, Richard, comps. 1999. Proceedings: ecology and management of pinyon-juniper communities within the Interior
West; 1997 September 15-18; Provo, UT. Proc. RMRS-P-9. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research
Station.
Richard Stevens was Project Leader/Research Biologist (retired), Division of Wildlife Resources, Great Basin Experiment Station, Ephraim, UT 84627.
Three basic types of chains are used in pinyon-juniper projects:
1. Smooth Chain-Unmodified smooth links of various lengths and weights. Swivels are required on both ends.
2. Ely Chain-Anchor chains with steel bars, hard surfaced railroad rail, are I -beam welded crossways to every link, every other link, or every third link. Bar length will vary with link size but should extend 4 to 6 inches beyond both sides of the link. The 10 to 15 lead links at either end of the chain are left smooth. Swivels are required at both ends and in the middle of the chain.
3. Dixie Sager-An anchor chain with railroad rail welded to each side of each link, horizontal to the link. Length of rail depends on link length. The rail should be approximately one-half the total length of the link. Rails are welded with the crown of the rail next to the link, and base of rail out.
Lead chains on each end consist of 10 to 15 smooth links.
Swivels are required at both ends and in the middle of the chain.
With all three chain types, percent kill and amount of soil disturbance increases with link size. Compared to a smooth chain, Ely chains do a better job of scarifying soil and preparing a desirable seedbed. Tree and shrub kill is improved with an Ely chain over a smooth chain. The Ely chain does, however, have a tendency to hook and roll downed trees and shrubs to the center ofthe chain. The Dixie sager was designed to uproot big sagebrush. It does an excellent job of uprooting sagebrush and scattered pinyon and juniper. The Dixie chain will do a better job than a smooth chain of soil scarification, and of sagebrush, small juniper, and pinyon kill. The Dixie sager does not work well in pinyon-juniper stands since the railroad rails tend to hook trees and carry them along; this lifts the chain offthe ground and reduces soil scarification and the number of trees and shrubs killed. Smooth chains are preferred when the objective is to release and open up tree and shrub communities such as pinyon-juniper, big sagebrush, aspen, mahogany, serviceberry, Gambel oak, chokecherry, bitterbrush, cliffrose, winterfat, and shrubby eriogonum. When removing trees and most shrubs, twice-over chaining is necessary. The first chaining completely uproots some trees; however, many trees are not completely uprooted and are laid down in the direction of chaining with some roots still in the ground. The second chaining should occur in the opposite direction, this generally uproots and tips the downed trees over. Many shrubs that come in contact with the chain can be uprooted or broken off. Twice-over chaining increases percent kill and topping of shrubs. Seeding should occur between chainings, as the second chaining covers the seed. If single chaining occurs, seeding should take place prior to chaining.
Once-over chaining may be adequate when sufficient understory remains, trees are mature, an objective is to only reduce tree density, and seeding is not planned.
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It is generally advantageous to leave downed trees in place and not pile or burn them. Some advantages to leaving trees in place include: (1) increased amount of infiltration by increased retention and detention of surface water; (2) increased ground cover; (3) decreased erosion; (4) cover maintained for wildlife; (5) big game and livestock movement onto and throughout the treated area is encouraged, resulting in more even distribution and use; (6) provide shade for livestock and big game; (7) decreased livestock trailing; (8) provides safe sites for seedlings to establish, seedling survival is improved, especially shrubs, and (9) cost of piling and burning is eliminated.
Some advantages to removing trees are: (1) improved vehicular access; (2) enhanced access to all forage by grazing animals; (3) fewer rodents; (4) reduction in fire potential, and (5) esthetics (Stevens and Monsen In press).
Desirable characteristics of chaining include:
1. Chaining is an effective method for restoring juniper-pinyon communities. Chaining can be effectively used to regulate or manipulate a community without destruction of understory species. Chain link size, modifications to links, and placement of crawler tractor will determine disturbance severity to understory species. Types and size of chain and chaining practices can be regulated to retain most all existing understory species including threatened and endangered species, yet sufficiently reduce tree competition to facilitate seeding or promote natural recovery of understory species. Native seedbanks are not harmed by appropriate chaining.
Through extensive testing and development of alternate equipment, chaining has proven to be the least destructive technique to existing vegetation and soil. Compared with other methods of mechanical treatment (plowing, disking), or use of herbicides or fire, this practice can be selectively used to reduce tree density in desired locations without disruption of understory plants and non target areas.
Soil conditions, including watershed stability, can be improved with chaining (Farmer and others, this Proceedings). Many treatment practic~s, including burning, leaves bare soil and sites subjected to extensive erosion for considerable periods. Chaining can leave considerable litter on the surface, which improves watershed protection by retaining and detaining surface moisture and increasing the amount of infiltration (Roundy and Vernon, this Proceedings; Wood
1988; Wood and Javed 1994; Wilcox 1994). Debris is also deposited in gullies, draws, and waterways, thereby improving retention and detention of surface moisture and decreasing amounts and duration of runoff and sedimentation.
A primary advantage of chaining, to watershed and vegetative conditions, is the practice can be used at most any season of the year. Plowing, spraying, and burning must be conducted at very specific times, depending on soil moisture, stage of plant growth, and site access. Treatment by these methods is often completed at a time when sites are subjected to erosion or seedbed conditions are not the most desirable. In many situations, burning, cutting, hula dozing, or other methods of plant control require follow up seeding treatments to reduce soil erosion or limit weed invasion.
Chaining allows treatment to be conducted at the most appropriate season to benefit soil stability, create a desirable seedbed, cover seed, and reduce the invasion of weeds.
Currently, no other treatment provides the flexibility afforded by chaining.
Chaining and seeding can also be effectively used to help control understory weeds that normally exist within depleted juniper-pinyon status. Since chaining does not generally disrupt the existing perennial understory species, desirable perennials can recover quickly (Jacobs and
Gatewood, this Proceedings) and provide immediate competition to potential weeds. Adding species by seeding can also increases competition with weedy plants. Soil nutrients and site productivity can be maintained by chaining. Surface litter and plant debris are maintained on site, whereas burning removes nutrients, litter and debris. Soil profiles are not disrupted with chaining as they would be with plowing or disking.
2. Chaining can be an effective method for selectively removing a desired density and age class of trees. Chaining is a technique that can be used to maintain selected trees, if desired. The amount or number of trees removed can easily be regulated by widening or narrowing the operating distance between the crawler tractors, or changing speed or direction of operation. The weight or size of the chain used and the number and position of swivels located in the chain can also be used to regulate the extent of tree removal. Different types of equipment are not required to effectively treat highly variable site conditions.
Prior to chaining, the area can be inventoried and a chain of appropriate size and length can be selected to treat most all circumstances. Once a chain size is selected, operational procedures can be developed to assure proper treatment is attained on all sites. Hula dozing or cutting of individual trees also provides considerable flexibility, but costs and treatment time are normally prohibitive and number of acres treated per day is low and most treated areas still have to be properly seeded.
Chaining can be very site specific, and can easily be regulated to specific community types, aspects, or acreage.
Compared with burning, this practice can be specifically targeted to desired sites including small, irregular tracts.
The degree of tree removal using chemical sprays or burning is difficult to control. Areas treated with either of these practices normally result in complete removal of all vegetation, although stands or patches may be left that are untreated. However, it is much more difficult to remove only a certain fraction ofthe trees without also affecting the understory by burning or chemical spraying.
Since chaining can be conducted during almost any season, the extent of trees or understory removed can somewhat be regulated by treatment dates and condition of the soil and vegetation. Chaining, during early winter, when plants are brittle and snow covers the understory, generally results in removal of trees and some shrubs, including big sagebrush, without damage to understory herbs. Chaining, during the growing season when woody species are more flexible, normally leaves more shrubs undamaged. Chaining late in the growing season, when soil moisture has been depleted, results in more complete uprooting of trees, than if sites are chained in early spring.
Chains with attached swivels and couplings are available to most public agencies and private users. Transportation and set up costs can be quite variable. Individual chains require little maintenance and repairs are very infrequent.
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Compared with other machinery, repair costs are minimal and little investment is needed for tools or items to support chaining.
3. Chaining can provide adequate seedbeds for many species and is a technique that can be used to cover
seed on diverse sites. Various practices used to control trees-spraying, burning, hula dozing, and hand cutting do not prepare a seedbed nor aid in actual seeding. Chaining can, however, prepare satisfactory seedbeds on steep, irregular, even and uneven terrain, and on critical watershed sites. Under normal chaining conditions, suitable seedbeds are created to plant seeds of a number of species, having different seedbed requirements. The chain creates numerous micro sites and allows for shallow or deep planting depths. In addition, seeds can be broadcast before or after chaining, to achieve the desired planting depth, surface compaction, and stand establishment. Planting before or after chaining will have an influence on which species may initially establish, and ultimately become prominent in the plant community.
Natural seeding of a selected native species can be promoted when chaining is conducted following seed production. Chaining also promotes sprouting of some species, and if done at the correct season favors their recovery and spread. Chaining can also be scheduled to diminish or control the spread of weeds. Ifunderstory herbaceous weeds occur, chaining can be completed in the early summer prior to weed seed maturation. At this date, good control of the trees can be achieved without planting weed seeds.
Chaining and seeding can be conducted at the most appropriate season favoring establishment ofthe planted species.
Fall seedings over the majority of the Intermountain west has proven to be the most ideal time to seed. Where spring seedings are employed, they need to occur prior to mid-
March. In southern Utah, southern Nevada, and northern
Arizona, seeding just prior to the mid-July summer storms has resulted in good success.
A uniform seedbed can be prepared with chaining even on rough, steep, and irregular sites. Few sites are left untreated with chaining where weeds may gain control.
Attaining uniform and competitive stands on irregular terrain and variable soil conditions is extremely difficult with most conventional seeding practices. Chaining produces the most uniform stands on poorly accessible sites of any technique now available.
Although burning or spraying can be used to control tree competition, an additional technique is needed to prepare a seedbed and to plant desirable seeds. Seeds may be broadcast on fresh burns or sprayed sites, however most all species require some degree of seed coverage. Seeds of many desirable species must be incorporated into the soil, others do best surface seeded on disturbed soil. Chaining provides all degrees of coverage, resulting in the establishment of a diversity of species. Chaining will favor soil moisture accumulation. The practice can be accomplished without seriously disturbing the soil and causing the surface to dry rapidly. Litter is retained on site to protect and enhance the seedbed. Chaining and seeding can be accomplished when sites are bare or covered with snow, without accelerating runoff and loss of moisture. Although some land managers fail to recognize the importance of having seed in the ground at specified periods when soil moisture is most favorable this is one of the most critical issues determining
success. Chaining offers a seeding option to quickly and effectively treat small and large divers sites.
Removing trees from steep mountain slopes with fire and spraying can create excessive runoff and soil erosion unless additional practices are used to stabilize the soil. In contrast, chaining will improve ground cover, retains and detains surface moisture, increases amount of infiltration, reducing runoff and providing a stable seedbed and watershed. With chaining, no additional treatments are required to assure site stability.
4. Chaining can have minimum impact on resource
values. Any plant conversion or regulation practice can im pact a number of wildland resources. Most revegeta tion or restoration measures should be designed to remove existing weedy species and reestablish natural plant succession.
Removal of existing weedy trees creates an abrupt and often dramatic change in plant density, structure, and age class. Recovery of the native species can frequently take many years to provide a visible mature assembly of plants.
During the recovery period the impacts can be quite apparent. When properly done, chaining will not degrade or destroy soil or watershed resources. It is a practice designed and modified to stabilize erosion and provide a desirable seedbed. The selection of an appropriate treatment practice should be based on the desirable impacts imposed on all resource values. Because of depleted understory and erosion, potential seeding of desirable adapted compatible species is most often required.
The majority of juniper-pinyon chaining and fires in the
Intermountain west have been aerially seeded. If double chaining is employed, seeding should occur before the final treatment. The final chaining normally provides good seed coverage. Seeding should occur prior to the chaining when one-way chaining is employed. Aerial broadcasting using a fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is used to distribute seed on areas that have been chained. Planting success is usually dependent upon time of seeding, seedbed conditions and thoroughness of seed coverage.
Aerial seeding can seed large acreages in an extremely short period. Large revegetation projects can often be more successfully seeded using aerial techniques and chaining than drill seedings, as planting can be completed during short planting periods or windows when seedbed and weather conditions are most favorable. Aerial seeding can be conducted when wet soil conditions hamper drilling. Drill seeding occurs at a much slower rate than does aerial seeding.
Many times it is impossible to physically get over large acreages during various seeding periods with drills. This can result in considerable acreages being seeded out of season or totally omitted. With aerial broadcasting, seeding can be delayed until late fall or early winter, and then seeded in a relatively few days and covered with chains, rails, or cable scarifiers.
Aerial seeding is also an effective method of seeding different seed mixtures on specific sites. Areas that support
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-9. 1999 283

distinct and different plant communities like riparian areas can be easily defined and planted separately from adjacent sites.
Helicopter seeding is usually selected over fixed-wind aircraft if highly irregular shaped sites and variable terrains are seeded and when air strips are unavailable. Effective seeding of right-of-way, fence lines, steep slopes, small areas, rough rocky terrains, riparian drainage, and specific species placement can be accomplished with helicopters.
Down draft and wind can cause seeds of different species to dissipate and fall separately, sometimes creating differences in stand composition and density. Variation in seeding and establishment is often advisable allowing for natural succession and spread of desirable species.
Where downed trees and debris does not interfere, seed can also be covered successfully using drags or a pipe harrow. Single disk harrows, or similar light machinery, can also be used to cover seed in open debris, free areas. Care must be taken to ensure that seeds are not covered too deep and seedbeds are not too loose.
Rangeland, or similar type drills can be used to seed many species on open areas. Again, care should be taken to ensure that seeds are properly covered. As a general rule, most seed should not be covered more than three times their own thickness, or to a depth of % to % inch. Some species do, however, require seeding on a disturbed soil surface.
Seeds that are in short supply or those that should be seeded in a firm seedbed can be seeded with a Hansen seed dribbler or thimble seeder mounted on the deck of a crawler tractor. These two seeders allow seed to be metered out onto the crawler track, then embedded in the soil by the tractor's weight.
La te fall un til mid win ter (October through Jan uary) is the preferred planting period. Seeding should not be attempted in frozen ground. Seedings should only occur when seed can be properly covered. Delaying seeding until late fall or midwinter can reduce seed depredation by rodents and birds. Fall and winter plantings provides adequate time for stratification of planted seeds, and ensures that seed is in the ground when temperature and soil moisture conditions are most favorable (early spring) for germination and seedling establishment.
Acknowledgments
Funds were provided through Federal Aid in Wildlife
Restoration Project W82R, Study 3 and Rocky Mountain
Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Provo, Utah.
References
Farmer, M. E.; Harper, K T.; Davis, J. N. 1998. These Proceedings.
The influences of anchor- chaining on watershed health in a juniper-pinyon woodland in central Utah.
Roundy, B. A.; Vernon, J. L. 1998. These Proceedings. Watershed values and conditions associated with pinyon-juniper communities.
Stevens, R 1998. These Proceedings. Restoration of native communities by chaining and seeding.
Stevens, R; Monsen, S. B. In Press. Pinyon juniper. In: Monsen, S. B.;
Stevens, R, eds. Restoration and revegetation of west ern ranges and wildlands. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Gen. Tech. Rep.
Vallentine, J. F. 1989. Range development and improvement, 3rd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press Inc. 524 p.
Wilcox, B. P. 1994. Runoff and erosion in intercanopy zones of pinyon-juniper woodlands. Journal of Range Management
47:285-295
Wood, M. K 1988. Rangeland vegetation-hydrologic interactions.
In: Tueller, P.T., ed. Vegetation science applications to rangeland analysis and management. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 469-491 p.
Wood, M. K; Javed, N. 1994. Hydrologic responses to fuelwood harvest and slash disposal in a pinyon pine and juniper dominated grassland. Trends in Hydrology 1:179-190.
284 USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-9. 1999