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page 3 #42 <br />C. Overgrazing with cattle will cause western wheatgrass, <br />green needlegrass, and alkali sacaton to decrease in the <br />plant community. Overgrazing with sheep will cause <br />fourwing saltbush and winterfat to decrease. Fourwing <br />saltbush can be grazed out completely. if grazed during <br />the growing season year after year. Fouring saltbush and <br />winterfat act as decreasers and are difficult to maintain <br />under yearlong grazing by both sheep and cattle. Blue <br />grama, buffalo grass, bottlebrush squirreltail, red <br />threeawn, sun sedge, numerous unpalatable forbs, fringed <br />sagebrush, broom snakeweed, and plains pricklypear are <br />the principle increasers. With continuous heavy grazing <br />blue grama and buffalo grass will increase to a pure sod- <br />bound condition. Continued heavy grazing will cause <br />plants such as curlycup gunweed, six weeks fescue, <br />cheatgrass, and Russian thistle to invade this site. <br />d. Basal area (the area of ground surface covered by <br />perennial vegetation at ground level) is approximately 30 <br />percent. <br />e. Annual Production <br />if the range is in excellent condition, the approximate <br />total annual production (air-dry) ranges are: <br />Favorable Years 1500 lb/Ac <br />Normal Years 1000 lb/Ac <br />Unfavorable Years 500 lb/Ac <br />of this production, 5 to 10 percent will likely be <br />unpalatable or out of reach of grazing animals. <br />4. Native Animal Community Associated with the Potential <br />Plant Communitv. <br />This site supports a resident community of mule deer, <br />pronghorn, jackrabbit, many small rodents and ground <br />nesting birds. It is used extensively by coyotes and <br />raptors for food hunting. <br />5. soils <br />a. The soils of this site are moderately deep to deep and are <br />well drained. The surface textures are clays and clay <br />loams. The soils are formed in alluvium, residual and <br />mixed eolian parent material derived from calcareous <br />shale and calcareous mixed lithology. The surface layers <br />vary in reaction from a pH of 6.6 to 8.4. <br />Permeability varies from moderately slow to very slow. <br />Surface runoff is medium to rapid and the erosion hazard <br />is slight to moderate. However, water erosion can be <br />severe if the plant cover is destroyed. Effective <br />rooting depth of these soils is 60 inches or more.