Keyword: grazing

Shortgrass steppe in the southern Great Plains: Prescribed fire, drought, production, and grazing

Rangeland managers promoting sustainable use of semiarid ecosystems in the Southwestern U.S. face numerous complex challenges, including invasions by non-native species, the expansion of woody vegetation, altered fire regimes, and drought. These challenges are compounded by uncertainty in how these problems will respond to any changes in climate. Decisions that land managers make today will influence landscapes for decades.

Wetter environment and increased grazing reduced the area burned in northern Eurasia from 2002 to 2016

Northern Eurasia is currently highly sensitive to climate change. Fires in this region can have significant impacts on regional air quality, radiative forcing and black carbon deposition in the Arctic which can accelerate ice melting. Using a MODIS-derived burned area dataset, we report that the total annual area burned in this region declined by 53% during the 15-year period from 2002 to 2016.

Medusahead response 6 years after burning and seeding in sagebrush steppe

A prescribed burn for western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) reduction at Crooked River National Grassland in Oregon was conducted in 2011. Foliar cover by species or genus and functional group was measured every other year for 6 years to evaluate response to four treatments: unburned control, burned, burned-plus-nativeseeding, and burned-plus-cultivar seeding.

Pollinators of the Great Plains: Disturbances, stressors, management, and research needs

Recent global declines of pollinator populations have highlighted the importance of pollinators, which are undervalued despite essential contributions to ecosystem services. To identify critical knowledge gaps about pollinators, we describe the state of knowledge about responses of pollinators and their foraging and nesting resources to historical natural disturbances and new stressors in Great Plains grasslands and riparian ecosystems.

Private ranchlands and public land grazing in the southern Rocky Mountains

In the western United States, Euro-American settlement was concentrated on the most fertile, best-watered, and most desirable sites, while the unsettled mountains and deserts remained in the public domain. As a result, the public and private halves of the western landscape are not interchangeable for conservation purposes.

Abundance of non-breeding horned larks and chestnut-collared longspurs on grazed and rested semiarid grassland

We counted birds monthly from October through April of 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 on regularly grazed and rested (since 1973) semiarid grassland of central New Mexico. Horned larks (Eremophila alpestris) and chestnut-collared longspurs (Calcarius ornatus) accounted for 66% and 10% of all birds detected, respectively. We examined variation in counts of these species relative to grazing history, site, and vegetation characteristics.

Notes from the Manitou Experimental Forest

The Manitou Experimental Forest is a branch of the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. It is in the Pike National Forest, 28 miles north and west of Colorado Springs. This experimental area of 26 square miles was established in 1936 to study problems of watershed management, grazing, and other kinds of land use in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies.