Laserfiche WebLink
The box elder community occupies less than one percent of the study area <br />• and occurs only along one drainage (Sections 35 and 36 ). Soils are deep, dark, <br />fine loamy cumulic cryoborolls with moderate to good development and excellent <br />plant growth qualities. <br />The dominant species in this community is box elder (Ater negundo) which <br />forms the overstory. The understory shrub stratum is dominated by chokecherry, <br />serviceberry, and young boxelder, each contributing about 10 percent cover. The <br />herbaceous stratum is dominated by a variety of forbs totalling 60 to 80 percent <br />over with 5 to 10 percent cover contributed by various grasses, including <br />bluegrasses, fescues, and wheatgrass. Total cover ranges from 100 to 200 per- <br />cent and averages over 100 percent. <br />Potential available productivity is estimated to range from 1500 to 3000 <br />• pounds per acre. <br />Grassland-forb communities are usually small (less than one acre) areas <br />situated in bottoms or upland flats and contiguous with sagebrush-forb communi- <br />ties. This type comprises about one percent of the study area. Soils are deep, <br />dark, fine loamy cryoborolls with poor to good development. <br />Forbs tend to predominate over this type, comprising about 60 percent of <br />the vegetation. Grasses and a few scattered sagebrush make up the remaining 40 <br />percent. Dominant forbs at the time of the survey were western yarrow (Achilles <br />millefolium) and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). Other associated forbs were <br />mountain parsleys (Cymopterus sp.), locoweed (Astragalus spp.), and asters <br />(Aster sp.). The only identifiable grasses (grazing by sheep had been severe) <br />were bluegrasses and wheatgrasses. <br />• <br />- 129 - (Rev. 5/86) <br />