17 Years of Grazer Exclusion on 3 Sites in Pinyon-Juniper Woodland at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
Chong GW. 1992. 17 Years of Grazer Exclusion on 3 Sites in Pinyon-Juniper Woodland at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
In order to determine the effects of grazing on Pinyon-Juniper woodland at Bandelier National Monument, NM, a set of grazing exclosures was established in 1975. Data on the percent basal coverage by species of three grazing exclosure treatments (woven wire, five wire and open), at three different sites, from 1984 and 1992 were compared using canonical discriminant analysis to look for differences between treatments. Plots were compared against themselves (1992 to 1984) using paired t-tests to look for changes in vegetative cover by species and life form (grasses, forbs and woody). The discriminant analysis shows a clear distinction between the three treatments based on total percentage basal cover. The ttests show some significant changes (increases or decreases) for some species, but overall seem to indicate that vegetative cover is not changing in any of the treatments. It is concluded that the grazing exclosures are useful for management decisions because they show that grazing does reduce vegetative groundcover, but that simple release from grazing is not, sufficient to cause significant improvement. This implies that more active management is desirable.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Chong, Geneva
- Date of Issue
- 1992-11-25
- Units
- BAND
- Keywords
- Burro (Equus asinus), Ecology, Erosion, Exclosures, Grazing, Impacts, Management, Monitoring, Pinyon-Juniper Forest, Plant Studies, Revegetation