The relative importance of livestock grazing in limiting or enhancing oak recruitment remains unclear because results from previous studies have been contradictory. In Santa Barbara County, we have replicated large-scale planting experiments from 1997 to 2001 to determine the effects of cattle and other factors on seedling establishment of valley oak (Quercus lobata) and coast live oak (Q. agri...

Despite overall increased production in the last century, it is critical that grazing production systems focus on improving beef and dairy efficiency to meet current and future global food demands. For livestock producers, production efficiency is essential to maintain long-term profitability and sustainability. This continued viability of production systems using pasture- and range-based grazi...

Logging and livestock grazing are widespread management practices in Southwestern ponderosa pine forests that may act either independently or synergistically with fire management to influence habitat availability and use, reproductive success, and songbird population levels. Fire, historically an important natural process in Southwestem ponderosa pine forests, had far-reaching affects on forest...

Preference value means livestock preference to eat some plants relative to other plants or species. Accordingly, by studying the preference values, the range managers could determine the rangelands grazing capacity to achieve the optimum performance of livestock and to guarantee the stability of rangeland ecosystem. The objective of this study was to determine the preference value of perennial ...

The intensity of management of lowland grassland fields in the United Kingdom, coupled with the fact that such grasslands dominate much of the lowland landscape, means that there are now few opportunities for many plants, invertebrates, birds, or mammals to survive. The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) has investigated whether fencing off the margins of such fields next to watercourses to co...

Rising temperatures due to climate change are pushing the thermal limits of many species, but how climate warming interacts with other anthropogenic disturbances such as land use remains poorly understood. To understand the interactive effects of climate warming and livestock grazing on water temperature in three high elevation meadow streams in the Golden Trout Wilderness, California, we measu...

Y the turn of the century, the Edwards Plateau region of Texas had developed into a major livestock area (27). Continuous, heavy grazing by domestic livestock and the prevention of natural fires since that time have significantly changed the vegetative complex (15, 16). Long-term, excessive removal of vegetation on the plateau by grazing animals reduced the protective herbaceous cover, broke do...