TheImprovement ofTropical and Subtropical Rangelands

282 IMPROVDaNT0' TROPIOAL AND SUBTROPIOAL RANGELANDS
from the lowlands of Khus.tan over the creet of the 4,547-m Zard
Kuh into the submontane valleys and buina of western Esfahan
province on the !rinses of the central Iranian plateau. The Bakhtiari
area, while mountainous, ruSSed, and oft-times sterile, does oWer the
typical altitudinal range of climate and vegetation upon which all of
the nomadic systems of the Zagros are based.
Despite some confusion and a diAppointing lack of specific information
about Bakhtiari putorallDOYements,12 the general outline
of the pattem is well known and replicates patterns found el8ewhere
in the Zagros mountains (figure 5-2). The winter months are spent
in the lowland foothills and plains of norther Khulfllltan between
Desful and Ramhormoz,1S with the Haft-lang concentrated around
Dezful and the Chehar-lang ecattered from Shushtar to Ramhormos.
Dispersion during the winter months is extreme, with groups ofthree
or four tents beingecattered throughout the lowlands 14 in a pattern
also noted among the Bueeri.
Sometime between the vemal equinox 16 and mid-April,us the
ecattered winter minimal camp groups begin to move northward,
away from the drying lowlands towards their upland summer ~
tures. Evidently an entire tribal subdivision does not begin to move
simultaneously; rather, tent groups move initially in an isolated fashion
gradually coalescing into larger groups as the difficulty of the
terrain increuea and the available routes of pusage decrease. 1 T In
some favored mountain valley at some time during the initial stages
of the trek, the tent groups will come together and the sub-tribe
will continue the movement as a unit, croIBing the Zard Kuh range
until once again dispersing in the upland valleys and basins that
eventually slope down to the central Iranian plateau.
While there is general agreement about the natureofthis summer
upslope, winter d0WD81ope movement, and while there is a COIUleIl8U8
that movement proceeds in a zigzag fuhion utilizing valley bottoms
and favorable pUlleS, much ambiguity still persists. De Bode provides
a list of summer and winter encampments that indicates that the
Chehar-lang spend their summer near the sources of the Zayandeh
Rud in the Zard Kuh range as well as in the district of Faradan (with
minor groups in Chahar Mahal), while the Haft-lang spend their
summer in Chahar Mahal and near the sources of the Karun River
in Zard Kub. 11 However, he fails to indicate the routes followed,
aside from a cryptic comment that a tendency to croes each other's
path often leads to conflict between the two groups. Coon asserts
that there is only one practical route through the Bakhtiari country