Forgot your password?
New user?
Document Actions
Conditions of Rangelands before 1905: Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
From this report:
"Paleoecological sources indicate that the location and extent of Sierra Nevada rangelands have varied significantly during the last
20,000 years. Modern vegetative associations are recent, with montane wet meadows appearing during the last 3,000 years. A late Pleistocene sagebrush grassland existed where montane and subalpine forests occur today."
"The abundance of a diverse assemblage of large grazing mammals at the end of the Pleistocene indicates that Sierra Nevada rangelands were highly adapted to intense grazing pressure and that animal disturbance was an integral part of this highly productive system. This evidence argues for a recognition that well-managed animal disturbance is as vital as well-managed fire to ecosystem health and sustainability."
rangeland-management, rangeland-extent, rangeland-foothill, rangeland-montanne,rangeland-paleoecological conditions, rangeland-resources, rangeland-historical conditions, grazing-unregulated, grazing-unregulated, paleoecology-sierra nevada, vegetation-montane, vegetation-great basin, Lake Lahontan, Lake Russell, plant-herbivore relationships
juniper, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, single-needle piñon, giant sequoia, sierra juniper, muotain hemlock, red fir, lodgepole pine; mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep
June 01, 1996 01:00 AM
Publication
Complete
None planned
Documents
Reports
Web Page / Link
Public
No Restrictions
Kings canyon, Swamp Lake, Exchequer Meadow, Sierra National Forest, Carson Sink, Great Basin