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Following wildfire, the Bureau of Land Management customarily follows a 2-year deferral from grazing to allow short-term rehabilitation objectives to be met for burned area stabilization. However, lack of scientific evidence has many rangeland managers and permittees questioning its necessity. Riparian areas are particularly susceptible to concentrated livestock use during the hot season when uplands are senesced. This research sought to quantify riparian condition across channel and watershed attributes, fire severity, and pre- and post-fire grazing-use. We monitored 23-burned streams on public lands in Nevada, selecting reaches of greatest management concern across the watershed. To quantify stream recovery, we used Multiple Indicator Monitoring of Stream Channels and Streamside Vegetation and focused on indictors of riparian condition: greenline plant composition, woody species cover and height, and streambank stability and cover. We quantified watershed and stream channel characteristics in ArcGIS and measured stream gradient and substrate diameter at site. Riparian species composition and community structure were most related to watershed position. Bank stability, species richness, and woody species cover and height increased with duration of recovery periods and decreased with duration of continuous, hot season grazing-use prior to the fires. Bank cover increased with vegetation and streambank stability and moving up in watershed position. Banks were more stable with increased bank cover and decreased fine substrate, stream gradient, and post-fire grazing duration. Over the two-year study, bank stability decreased at sites with increasing fine substrate and grazing-use, which were more common lower in the watershed. Lower positioned sites were grazed the longest, have the lowest values for condition, and may be more susceptible to grazing pressure because of high proportion of fine substrate material. Grazing strategies that reduce the duration of hot season grazing promoted riparian vegetation recovery and bank stability following disturbance, which may help meet post-fire objectives more quickly.