The effect of riparian fencing with cattle crossings (BMP) on riparian health and preventing and reducing nonpoint source pollution was examined on the mixed grass prairie east of Lethbridge in southern Alberta, CA, along the Lower Little Bow River, from 2001-2007. Barbed wire fence with cattle crossing was installed along 800m reach of both sides of river, 2001. Cattle were grazed in a rotational grazing sytem. Water samples were collected every week for chemical, and every two weeks for bacterial, analysis. Temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO) turbidity, and Chlorophyll-a were measured in field. Water samples were analyzed for NH₃-N, NO₂-N, NO₃-N, dissolved reactive P (DRP) or ortho-P, total N (TN), total P (TP), fecal coliforms and E. coli (by colony-forming units or CFU.) Pre- and post-fencing (BMP) streambank assessments of 6 vegetation factors (floodplain and streambank cover, invasive plant spp., disturbance-increasers or undesired herbaceous spp., preferred tree and shrub establishment and regeneration, utilization of trees and shrubs, and standing decadent and dead woody material) and 5 soil and hydrology factors (streambank root mass protection, human-caused bare ground, streambank structurally altered by human activity, pugging and/or hummocky, and stream channel incisement) were conducted.
Citations and enhanced abstracts for journals articles and documents focused on rangeland ecology and management. RSIS is a collaboration between Montana State University, University of Idaho, and University of Wyoming.