Juniper and Sagebrush

Juniper and Sagebrush

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Karen Launchbaugh, Is the Director of the University of Idaho's Rangeland Center. There is a program to eliminate junipers from 940 square miles in Owyhee County in southwest Idaho and I chatted with Dr. Launchbaugh about this. "Junipers are crowding out sagebrush imperiling habitat for sage grouse? You are absolutely right and the other thing that Juniper does is that it provides a place for ravens, hawks and eagles to sit. Aerial predators are a problem for sage grouse chicks. So not only, the Juniper is pushing out the sagebrush but it is providing a place for those aerial predators to sit and make lunch out of those little sage chicks. There is also a statement that says cattlemen will benefit from this because... Because the Juniper is crowding out the sagebrush but it is also crowding out grasses which the cattle eat. So if you remove Juniper, you increase the production of forage or herbaceous grasses. That is what a cattlemen benefit. Also elk, deer and other wildlife that eat grasses. What I would work on is targeted grazing. So I use grazing to reduce fires and weeds. Let's get into your research. Grazing reduces cheat grass problems. Go into to that for me. One of the challenges with fire in the West now is the amount of cheat grass. There is much more than there used to be. It was introduced about 100 years ago and has expanded its range since then. The problem is that it is such an excellent fuel."
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