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• Although annual and biennial (orbs were not abundant (1.7 percent relative cover), certain species were <br />frequently present, including the natives baby blue-eyes (Collinsia Rarvifloral, linearleaf collomia <br />(collomia linearis), groundsmoke (Gayoohvtum dittusum), and Douglas knotweed (Polygonum douglasii), <br />and the introduced salsify. <br />Total vegetation cover was 71.9 percent, bare soil was 7.3 percent, and litter was 20.8 percent (Table <br />4). Herbaceous production was a modest 748 oven-dry pounds per acre (Table 13). Shrub density <br />sampling showed 5107 stems per acre (Table 19), approximately half of which was mountain <br />snowberry. Other major contributors to shrub density were serviceberry, mountain big sagebrush, <br />chokecherry, and Gambel's oak. <br />The Mixed Brush type within the Permit Area had total vegetation cover of 79.9 percent, 8 percent <br />higher than the Expansion Area (Table 21). Bare soil and litter were both lower in the Permit Area. <br />Shrub cover in the Permit Area was 8 percent higher than the Expansion Area and to a lesser degree, <br />the same relation held for perennial graminoids and }orbs. Gambel's oak provided more cover in the <br />Permit Area, while snowberry was less extensive there compared to the Expansion Area. Following <br />• fire, it is likely that the abundance of snowberry is enhanced while, at least temporarily, the <br />above-ground expression of Gambel's oak is depressed. It is assumed that sucession eventually leads to <br />reestablishment of greater oak cover. The lower abundance of herbaceous cover in the expansion area <br />may relate to the continued grazing of the Expansion Area by domestic livestock, compared to the <br />protection of the Permit Area from such use for several years. <br />Sagebrush (Figure 5) <br />This vegetation type is found, for the most part, on the deeper soils of the site. It represents <br />one end of a continuum of gradation of shrub development (see Figure 7). On the end of the continuum <br />with deepest soil, dominance is held by sagebrush (see samples 3, 6, and 13, Table 5). Throughout most <br />of the sites, however, the abundance of snowberry equals or exceeds that of sagebrush. <br />Shrubs are the most abundant li(eform, comprising 45.3 percent relative cover. Mountain snowberry <br />averages out to be the most abundant species (23.2 percent relative cover) followed by basin big <br />sagebrush and mountain big sagebrush (5.7 and 9.0 percent relative cover, respectively). Other <br />• common, though not abundant shrub species, include serviceberry and Douglas rabbitbrush. Species <br />15 <br />