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ERO Resources <br /> 11 the potential of sagebrush lands hae bean drastically altered, <br />• perhaps permanently; <br /> 2) important events in cyclic trends in pristine sagebrush/ <br /> grasslands have been truncated by land use since the 1850's and <br /> more inQortantly that some of these events such as wildfire, now <br /> produce results that produce further degradation affects Isee <br /> also, Young and Evans 19781 due to the prevalence of cheatgrass <br /> on degraded range; <br /> 3> degradation of sagebrush rangelands continues in the present day <br /> as both the result of established downward trends and as the <br /> result of inadequate range management practices; and <br /> 4) the probability of restoring sagebrush lands to pristine or near <br /> pristine conditions is slight, at best, primarily because <br /> sagebrush/grasslands were never true grasslands -this feature <br /> relates to two important sub-concepts 111 that the perennial <br /> grass component will not be rejuvenated by grazing precsure <br /> relaxation alone: reintroduction of perennial grasses by seeding <br /> is also necessary and 121 that the relative youth of the <br />• sagebrush and pinyon-juniper ecosystems is a factor in their <br /> notably cyclic and instable character: evolution of process and <br /> species dynamics in these 6ystB1116 was incompletely developed by <br /> the time dortwstic grazing animals were introduced. <br />Dwyer 119751 has reviewed much of this and similar information that <br />indicate a general increase in the predominance of woodlands resulting <br />from increased land use pressures. Sheep grazing is of particular <br />interest in Dwyer 's review. References cited by Dwyer include Miller <br />119Z1), Emerson 119321, Allred (19491, Johnsen 119611 and Jameson (]966 <br />and 19701. Johnsen advances four suggestions concerning the increase of <br />juniper in southwestern rangelands: <br />1) lack of periodic fires that control the numbers of young juniper <br />trees; <br />2) increased spread of juniper seed by livestock, particularly <br />sheep; <br />II.F-13 <br />