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MANAGING LIVESTOCK GRAZING FOR RIPARIAN RECOVERY IN NORTHEASTERN NEVADA
Author
Evans, Carol
Simonds, Gregg E.
Sant, Eric D.
Fesenmyer, Kurt
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

How livestock grazing is managed can have profound effects on how streams function over time and how these systems both respond to and even change the environment around them. In the Maggie and Susie Creek basins in Northeastern Nevada, a combination of surface and sub-surface data, photo documentation and use of remote sensing techniques are used to tell a compelling story of how collaborative partnerships and riparian grazing management have caused these stream systems to become increasingly productive and resilient over time.� In the Maggie and Susie Creek watersheds, partners shared a vision to restore native trout and implemented a variety of prescriptive livestock grazing practices on both public and private lands over a period of more than two decades.� Although the grazing strategies differed widely, all included periods of time when riparian plants were either ungrazed or could regrow following grazing impacts. �The ensuing growth and establishment of riparian plant communities set into motion a sequence of events which included colonization and stabilization of floodplains, establishment of beaver, re-hydration of mid-level terraces and development of functional systems which mediated and even benefited from severe droughts and floods in recent years.� Especially in the Maggie Creek Basin, an elevated water table is creating mesic conditions on terraces that have been long disconnected from the stream.� Beaver seem to be an especially important aspect of this story.� Although recovery of these watersheds is still a story in progress, the events that have unfolded over the past 25 years illustrate the power and potential of collaborative watershed management and of managing livestock grazing for riparian recovery.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts