2006-05-26_REVISION - M1994077 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Site Type: Rangeland Sandy Bottomland MLRA: 67B -Central High Plains, Southern Part R067BY031CO Plant Community Narratives Following are the narratives for each of the described plant communities. These plant communities may not represent every possibility, but they probably are the most prevalent and repeatable plant communities. The plant composition table shown above has been developed from the best available knowledge at the time of this revision. As more data is collected, some of these plant communities may be revised or removed, and new ones may be added. None of these plant communities should necessarily be thought of as "Desired Plant Communities". According to the USDA NRCS National Range and Pasture Handbook, Desired Plant Communities will be determined by the decision makers and will meet minimum quality criteria established by the NRCS. The main purpose for including any description of a plant community here is to capture the current knowledge and experience at the time of this revision. Sand Bluestem, Prairie Sandreed, Switchgrass, Indiangrass Plant Community This is the interpretive plant community and is considered to be the Historic Climax Plant Community (HCPC). This plant community evolved with grazing by large herbivores, is well suited for grazing by domestic livestock and can be found on areas that are properly managed with grazing that allows adequate recovery periods following each grazing occurrence during the growing season. The historic climax plant community consists chiefly of tall warm season grasses. Principle dominants are sand bluestem, prairie Sandreed, Switchgrass and yellow Indiangrass. Sub-dominant grasses include needleandthread and blue grams. Significant forbs and shrubs are pacific peavine, evening primrose, prairie clovers, leadplant and western sandcherry. The potential vegetation is about 70- 85% grasses or grass-like plants, 8-15% forbs and 7-15% shrubs. Prescribed grazing that allows for adequate recovery periods after each grazing event and proper stocking will maintain this plant community. Continual or repeated spring grazing and summer deferment will reduce the cool season component of this plant community and increase the warm season component. Spring deferment and continual or repeated summer grazing will increase the cool season component and decrease the warm season component of this plant community. This plant community is well adapted to the Northern Great Plains climatic conditions and is resistant to many disturbances except continuous grazing, plowing, uncontrolled fire events and urban as well as other land use development. The diversity in plant species allows for high drought tolerance. Plant litter is properly distributed with very little movement off-site and natural plant mortality is very low. This is a sustainable plant community in terms of soil stability, watershed function and biologic integrity. Production in this community can vary from 1200 to 2400 pounds of air-dry vegetation per acre per year depending on the weather conditions and will average 1850 pounds. The following is an estimated growth curve of this plant community expected during a normal year. Vegetative growth begins earlier in the southern reaches (Baca, Bent, Kiowa, Las Animas and Prowers counties) of MLRA-676. Vegetative growth will typically be suppressed during the months of June through August in these counties due to higher evapotranspiration rates. Growth curve number. CO6709 Growth curve name: Warm season dominant, cool season sub-dominant; MLRA-676; upland coarse textured soils. JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 0 0 2 7 25 35 15 10 5 1 0 0 (monthly percentages of total annual growth) Technical Guide USDA NRCS Section IIE 6 Rev. 3/04