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Show 86 part Three. Jan Knight Chapter One. Range Conservation. Although they're several million years old, Utah's Henry Mountains form one of the world's youngest mountain ranges. Some of the layers of sandstone thrust on edge by the e a r t h ' s violent upheavals are bare and rugged, escalating in color from beige to bright orange. Others have been softly carpeted by the dull green of pinyon pines and junipers. Here and there miles-square patches of ground are l i t t e r e d by blackened, uprooted trees, viith desert shrubs and grasses groviing among the tree-skeletons. At f i r s t glance these patches look like the remains of wildland f i r e s , but they're actually the results of "chaining." The trees were torn from the ground by an anchor chain stretched betvieen two large tractors so that the soil they stood on could be reseeded for greater plant growth. On a typical summer day, Jan Carol Knight kneels among the desert shrubs, clipping a l l the varieties of plant l i f e in a 9.6 square foot area. She separates the vegetation by type and puts each species into a brown paper bag, weighs the bag on a hand scale, and records the weight on a chart. Then she moves to another square and repeats the procedure. Jan's work will assure that all animals living in the Henry Mountains have enough of the right kind of food. Summer is a favorite time of year for Jan, as i t was during her childhood days in Whittier, California when her father would take her to work with him. As an inspector for the Los Angeles County Department °f Agriculture, Mr. Knight examined plants vihich came into California, making certain they were not hosts to pests vihich could damage crops. |
