Wild horses and domesticated livestock can have direct and indirect effects on the structure and composition of riparian areas and the hydrologic function of the associated ecosystem.� In arid regions, where water is limiting, riparian areas often become the focal point for land managers.� Quantifying the direct impacts from the individual user groups of wild horses versus domesticated livestock within a co-mingled allotment is difficult and further complicated by the variability in annual weather and natural disasters.� In 2011, we began a case study to determine the effect of an off-site water installation on livestock use of a nearby riparian area dominated by an ephemeral channel.� Complicating the study design was the present of approximately 500 wild horses, 350 over the established allotment management level.� Further, complications occurred in August 2012 when the upper watershed burned necessitating a change in livestock management for the next two years.� Data will be presented documenting riparian vegetation and stream channel dynamics from 2009 through 2015 in the presence of livestock and wild horse grazing, livestock removal, wildfire and flash floods.� The story is insightful and thought provoking.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.