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Journal article
Wild ungulate influences on the recovery of willows, black cottonwood and thin-leaf alder following cessation of cattle grazing in northeastern Oregon
Northwest science., Vol.71(2), pp.115-126
1997
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/1249
Abstract
Restoration of degraded riparian ecosystems is of great importance for the recovery of declining and endangered stocks of Columbia River salmonids as well as riparian-obligate wildlife species. Willows (Salix spp.), thin-leaf alder (Alnus incana), and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) are important features of western riparian ecosystems having multiple functional roles that influence biological diversity, water quality/quantity, and aquatic/terrestrial food webs and habitats. Removal of domestic livestock and the construction of big game enclosures have been hypothesized to be effective restoration techniques for riparian ecosystem as well as for salmonid habitat recovery. Following more than a century of livestock grazing, cattle were removed from Meadow Creek in 1991 and the rates of riparian shrub recovery were measured for the two years following. Elk and deerproof enclosures were constructed to quantify the browsing influences of native large ungulates. The initial mean height of 515 deciduous trees and shrubs (14 species) was 47 cm. After two years in the absence of livestock, significant increases in height, crown area, crown volume, stem diameter and biomass were measured both outside and inside of the enclosures. Mean crown volume of willows increased 550% inside of wild ungulate exclosures and 195% outside. Black cottonwood increased 773% inside and 808% outside, while thin-leaf alder increased 1046% inside and 198% outside. Initial shrub densities on gravel bars were low averaging 10.7 woody plants/100m-2. Shrub numbers significantly increased apprxeq 50% (to 15.8 plants/100m-2 m or one new shrub for every 9 meters of transect length) outside of elk and deer proof enclosures through both clonal and seedling establishment. At the beginning of the study (1991), catkin production on willows was low (i.e., only 10% produced catkins). Wild herbivores had a significant influence on the reproductive output of willows; in 1993 catkins were produced by 34% of the tagged willows within enclosures but only 2% outside of enclosures. Wild herbivores were found to have significant influences on the rate of height growth of black cottonwood. For willows, wild herbivores had a significant influence on the rate of growth for the parameters of height, crown area, crown volume, and standing biomass. Nevertheless, due to the inherent resilience and adaptions to natural disturbance processes displayed by the riparian species, there was a rapid and positive response to cessation of those land use activities (i.e, cattle grazing) that caused habitat degradation and/or were preventing recovery
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Details
- Title
- Wild ungulate influences on the recovery of willows, black cottonwood and thin-leaf alder following cessation of cattle grazing in northeastern Oregon
- Creators
- Richard L. Case (Author)J. Boone Kauffman (Author)
- Publication Details
- Northwest science., Vol.71(2), pp.115-126
- Academic Unit
- Northwest Science
- Publisher
- WSU Press
- Identifiers
- 99900502107801842
- Copyright
- In copyright ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article