Encroachment of Great Plains grasslands by fire-sensitive woody plants is a large-scale, regional process that fragments landscapes. In a recent REM paper (Fuhlendorf et al. 2017), we use two prairie grouse species (Tympanuchus�spp.) of conservation concern, and apply hierarchy theory to demonstrate how regional processes constrain lower level processes and reduce the success of local management. For example, fire and grazing management may be locally important to conservation, but they rarely cause irreversible fragmentation of grasslands in the Great Plains. Multiple disturbance processes cause short term alterations in vegetation conditions that can be positive or negative but from a long-term perspective it maintains large tracts of continuous rangelands by limiting woody plant encroachment. We maintain that conservation emphasis should be focused on landscape processes that contribute to landscape fragmentation such as increased dominance of trees, and that short term effects of fire and grazing on vital rates are less important to grouse population persistence.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.