This study was done to evaluate changes over a nine-year period in channel morphology and riparian vegetation in lightly grazed and essentially ungrazed sections of McKnight Creek, on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Measurements taken at three year intervals, between 1977 and 1985, of channel morphology and vegetation cover, inside and outside a cattle exclosure, showed that channels increased in depth and width on all plots. Tree canopy decreased between 1977 and 1985, but changes in density of trees and shrubs and herbaceous cover were small. Changes in stream morphology were attributable to a large fire in the headwaters and subsequent floods that caused a high degree of sedimentation in the upper channel, resulting in a dam effect with the lower reaches being scoured out. They attribute said differences to hydrologic processes of stream equilibrium, because there was no evidence that plots available for cattle use responded differently from protected plots to channel and vegetation changes.
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