Index
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Impacts on Native Plants
Selective herbivory results in species-specific increasers and decreasers (USDA Range Plant Handbook).
Bluebunch wheatgrass: This is a highly palatable bunchgrass, often the primary range species. Bluebunch succumbs to overstocking and too-early grazing. On millions of acres of rangeland with unrestricted grazing, it has practically disappeared from the wheatgrass-sagebrush community type. Attempts to extend its range have usually failed.
Bitterbrush. This is an important winter browse species. It withstands heavy grazing, but can die out if subjected to combined cropping and low germination.
Aspen. This is a keystone species for beaver. Close cropping may prevent reproduction. Protective measures may be necessary. Lack of reproduction indicates overstocked range conditions.
Native willows. These are principal sources of browse for many species, and important for riparian function and flood regulation. Willows grow in wet habitats that cattle are naturally adapted for. Overgrazed dead or dying willows are indicators of former abundance.
Kentucky bluegrass: This is a highly palatable non-native grass, beneficial as a pasture grass, but detrimental to bunchgrass ecology. It is a strong re-seeder, producing abundant sod, and becoming permanent where trampled or closley cropped, particularly in wet areas."
Quackgrass, smooth brome, and bulbous bluegrass. These three grasses are all rapidly invading eastern Washington and contributing to the decline of beneficial native species, yet few of these are specifically addressed in management plans. None are considered "noxious weeds", even though quackgrass was originally proposed as a noxious weed in the 1950s, in Okanogan County, Washington.
Cheatgrass. "Cheatgrass and other alien annuals increase the supply of fine fuels, thereby increasing the likelihood of fires, a change which further favors exotics." (Weddell). Cheatgrass creates its own ecosystem that tends to burn annually or semi-annually.
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