PERMFILE122701 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

t+-n ^f the populations at non-critical periods, but would be unlikely to affect the year-long carrying capacity for wildlife or ttce total wildlife populations. • Logically then, many rangeland areas disturbed by mining should not have wildlife habitat as a stated post-mining land use objective. For such sites, shrub estab- lishwent may be unnecessary end even undesirable. Incidental wildlife use would still occur after reclamaticn without the shrubs. Besides providir.o for suitable wildlife habitat on recl.ai~ed rangelands, reclama- tion standards must serve other important land use goals..0ne of the major. uses of rangelands in t!Ze western United States is watershed. With expanding energy development and associated population growth, the need to enhance water resources is important. One method of increasing available water is :by changing plant cover (Van Epps, 1974). Grover et al (1970), studied wafer yieLdis in central Utah from Gambel oak stands, sagebrush stands, and aspen stands;.. They found yields increased by 5.6 acre inches in 4 out of 5 years a[ elevatitons above 7,640 ft when Gambel oak and associated species were removed and the sttviiy area was converted to a grass-forb vegetation community. Other •studies havse shown that noisture depletion in the upper 4 Eeet of soil is essentially the sacme for stands of oak or '.• grass. however, at soil depths from 4 feet to 8 feet, the :n•.oisture loss from the soil was cut almost 60% when oak was eliminated and gra3sses were established instead (Taw, 1969). Grover et al (1970) found similar .moil moisture patterns under sagebrush and aspen. Another difficulty in selecting any shrub reclamation stamdard is that a shrub density optimum for one animal species may not be optimunn for another species. A reduction in shrubs can result in increased torage Eor alll classes of ungulates, wild or domestic. The importance of increased herbaceous production was stated by Gonzalez and Dodd (1979). "Populati.on increases have caused concern abo~yt increasing needs for red meat as food sources throughout: the world. The key for increasing beef and wild game pro:i3uction is increasing native and introduced herbaceous p':iant produc- tion, thus making more food available to graWing animals and uLtimn[cly to non." ~J -3-