christian 1959 Journal thoughts 2/11 26 Nov. Mother Lode trip I am perplexed as to how to handle the vegetational situation. The two best approaches seem to me to be: (1) plan the current vegetational distribution and composition, and determine the ancient human factors which have happened in the various areas. This is the inductive method. For example: this area was cut for pine, burnt twice in ten years and protected for 25, followed by clearing & now cattle raising is the prime land use - an grass land. This example tells us that irrespective of natural ecologic factors the area was pine forest originally then due to lumbering & recurrent fire events thru brush succession which under fire protection became very dense. Clearing enabled grasses (annuals) to grow. From forest to grassland. Thus: contemporary veg. & human land use back into time. The second approach would be to describe the vegetation as as early a time possible thru historical records. These primary sources will tell a story: vegetation and land use. The latter particularly lend more perspective to the above approach. The "contact-time" vegetation is not the "original" vegetation but it is a starting point. The mere point of view is theoretical. No ecologists were present at the year before the first white man wrote out a description of the countryside. Who was there - dubious. What were the human ecologic factors. And what was going on.