Marble and Harper inventoried the cover and species richness of vascular and cryptogamic components of the plant community, within experimental grazing paddocks at the Desert Range Experimental Station in Utah. Early winter grazing did not show a significant effect on vascular or cryptogamic communities. Early-late winter grazing showed significant decreases in the average number of cryptogamic species per transect. No treatment difference was seen for the vascular community. Vascular plant cover (relative to controls) was reduced by early-late winter grazing, but not a significant degree. Late season grazing, likewise, had no significant effect on number of vascular plant species per transect. The results suggest that desert ranges in areas where late winter and early summer rainfall is low and/or torrential when it does occur will suffer depletion of cryptogamic covers when heavy grazing is permitted to continue into late winter. Thus, avoidance of late winter use of desert ranges on the Colorado Plateau and in the Great Basin may reduce runoff and sedimentation downstream.
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