Species richness has not increased after long-term protection from grazing on sagebrush, aspen and tall forb rangelands

Abstract

Recent conservation biology and environmental literature contains claims that livestock grazing has caused and continues to cause reduction in species diversity on Western rangelands, especially public rangelands. This paper present quantitative data on species richness (number of species) inside and outside 24 long-term exclosures; 8 exclosures in aspen vegetation in Utah, 8 in sagebrush and salt desert shrub vegetation in Wyoming and 8 in tall forbs and other high elevation vegetation in Montana. The areas inside and outside the exclosure were sampled in the mid 1990s and comparisons made of the number of species found inside versus outside. Any effect of grazing or protection from grazing on species richness should be revealed by these comparisons.

Citation

Laycock, W. A.; Bartos, Dale; Klement, Keith. 2001. Species richness has not increased after long-term protection from grazing on sagebrush, aspen and tall forb rangelands. In: Proceedings: 1st National Conference on Grazing Lands; December 5-8, 2000; Las Vegas, NV. Washington, D.C.: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative. p. 615.