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31. Herbaceous Rangeland The Herbaceous Rangeland category encompasses lands dominated by naturally occurring grasses and (orbs as well as those areas of actual rangeland which have been modified to include grasses and fortis as their principal cover, when the land is managed for rangeland purposes and not managed using practices typical of pastureland. It includes the tall grass (or true prairie), short grass, bunch gross or polouse grass, and desert grass regions. Respectively, these grass regions represent a sequence of declining amounts of available moisture. Most of the tall grass region has been plowed for agriculture and the remaining tall grass range is now in North Dakota, Nebraska, southern Kansas and Oklahoma, and the Texas Coastal Plain. Short grass rangeland occurs in a strip about 300 miles (500 km) wide from the Texas Panhandle northward to the Dakotas where it widens to cover the western half of the Dakotas, the eastern three-fourths of Montana, and the eastern third of W yoming. Bunch grass and desert grass are found in many locations, representing transitional situations to desert shrub. Typical occurrences of grasslands include such species as the various bluestems (Andropogon), grama grasses (Bouteloua), wheatgrasses (Agro- pyron), needlegrasses (Stipa), and fescues (Festuca). • This category also includes the palmetto prairie areas of south-central Florida, which consist mainly of dense stands of medium length and tall grasses such as wiregrass (Aristida stricta) and saw palmettos (Seronoo ripens), interspersed occa- sional palms (Sobal palmetto), and shrubs (Shelford, 1963). Those palmetto prairie areas now in improved pasture would not be included in this category, nor would the herbaceous varieties of tundra vegetation. 32. Shrub and Brush Rangeland The typical shrub occurrences are found in those acid and semiarid regions characterized by such xerophytic vegetative types with woody stems os big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), shadscale (Artiplex confertifolia), greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculotus), or creosotebush (Correa divaricata), and also by the typical desert succulent xerophytes, such as the various forms of Cactus (Kuchler, 1904). When bottom lands and moist flats are characterized by dense stands of Typical wetland species such as mesquite (Prosopis), they are considered Wetland. Where highly alkaline soils are present, halophytes such as desert soltbrush (A triplex) may occur. • The type, density, and association of these various species are useful os indicators 2.9-8