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4-97 <br />Cover <br />• The vegetation cover in the Shadscale Wildrye averages a low <br />29.6 percent. Soil cover on the steep, erodible slopes is high <br />at 32.2 percent as is rock cover, 23.0 percent. Litter cover <br />is moderate at 15.2 percent. Cover by life form is as follows: <br />-trees, 5.5 percent; shrubs, 4.3 percent; succulents, 0.3 percent; <br />_ perennial grasses, 18.5 percent; annual grasses, 0.3 percent; <br />perennial forbs, 0.1 percent; lichens, 0.6 percent. See Table <br />4.5-125. <br />The woody plant cover is dominated by Utah juniper Juniperus <br />osteosperma and shadscale saltbush with a cover of 5.4 and 3.0 <br />percent, respectively. Other relatively common woody plants <br />include low rabbitbrush and big sagebrush. Pinyon pine Pinus <br />edulis, broom snakeweed, and shrubby buckwheat eriogonum <br />corymbosum are present with a low cover. <br />Salina wildrye, with a cover of 15.7 percent, is the dominant <br />• plant. Sandberg bluegrass, another native perennial grass, <br />has a cover of 2.8 percent. Cheatgrass, the only annual grass <br />present, has a cover of 0.3 percent. Yucca Yucca glauca, a <br />succulent, has a cover of 0.3 percent while lichens have a <br />cover of 0.6 percent. Perennial forb cover is insignificant <br />at 0.1 percent, and annual forbs were not present in the cover <br />transects. <br />Production <br />Total estimated production of clipped plots in the Shadscale <br />Wildrye Grassland ranges from 0.2 g/2 m2 to 100.7 g/2 m2 and <br />avera es 39.8 2 <br />g g/2 m or 178 lbs/ac. Over 90 percent of the <br />total is comprised of Salina wildrye (35.9 g/m2). Other <br />graminoids contributing to production are Sandberg bluegrass, <br />Cheatgrass, galleta, Indian ricegrass, and squirreltail. Total <br />forb production averages only 1.6 g/2 m2. See Table 4.5-135. <br />• <br />