During the past decade, and perhaps much longer, there has been substantial research and discussion about sagebrush plant communities and ecological sites. For sagebrush sites with a depleted perennial herbaceous understory, and an obvious component of annual grasses, the author virtually always describes the plant community as �a degraded sagebrush community.�� We believe this occurs for at least two reasons: 1) sagebrush is still present, and often with desired amounts of canopy cover; and 2) there is a small population of perennial grasses that potentially may increase. We propose that such sites are not �degraded sagebrush sites�, but rather annual grasslands with a remnant population of sagebrush and perennial grasses: at best a mixed annual-perennial plant community. Virtually all, if not every ecological process is primarily influenced by the annual grass component. Annual grasses are the ecological driver of all plant community dynamics as far into the future as one can possibly see. Using accurate language is critical to accurately describing the ecological situation and determining appropriate management actions. Consistently placing the emphasis on the �remnant perennial� component of the plant community, when the ecological driver is the abundance of the annual lifeforms regularly results in management for the perennial species. The result, especially in the most arid sagebrush systems, is more fires, fewer desired perennials, and an ever-larger portion of the landscape ecologically dominated by annual grasses. Acknowledging that landscapes with abundant annual grasses and remnant perennials, even when sagebrush cover is adequate, are actually annual grasslands with remnant perennials, changes the management focus from the �remnant perennials� toward to the ecologically dominant annual species. Management that does not address the ecologically dominant annual lifeform at least equal to the remnant desired perennial species, and yet, expects the perennials to increase, may be well-intended but boarders on delusional.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.