Extensive areas in the mountain brush zone, once supporting luxuriant stands of herbaceous plants, are now dominated by big sagebrush (Artemisia trident&a) and other brushy species. This change resulted mainly from severe livestock overgrazing in earlier years which weakened or killed the palatable herbaceous plants and opened the way for increase of the less palatable brush. With the increase of brush, many areas were bypassed by livestock. However, it has been found that by reducing the brush

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... and seeding adapted grasses, these areas can again be made highly productive grazing lands with the browse then forming an important part of the total forage. Artificial seeding trials show that many grasses are adapted within the mountain brush zone. Full evaluation of their suitability for range plantings, however, must include some information on their performance under grazing and aggressiveness in competition with other species. This paper reports the relative persistence of 22 grasses, each seeded with smooth brome (Bromus inermis) , under heavy grazing and protection on the Manti-LaSal National Forest in central Utah. These were selected because of superior showing from a much larger number undergoing preliminary trial. Smooth, brome provides a standard for judging values of newer species because it has demonstrated persistence under a wide range of use and site conditions over a long period on mountain lands. Some information is also given relative to response of sev-era1 shrubs following burning as well as their performance in competition with seeded grasses under protection and grazing.