Shrub Encroachment Impacts the Potential for Multiple Use Conflicts on Public Land |
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Authors: | Angela M Burkinshaw Edward W Bork |
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Institution: | (1) Rangeland Management Branch, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, #211, 4920-51 Street, Red Deer, AB, T4N 6K8, Canada;(2) Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, 410E Agriculture/Forestry Center, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2P5, Canada |
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Abstract: | Public rangelands in North America are typically managed under a multiple use policy that includes livestock grazing and wildlife
management. In this article we report on the landscape level extent of grassland loss to shrub encroachment in a portion of
the Rocky Mountain Forest Reserve in southwestern Alberta, Canada, and review the associated implications for simultaneously
supporting livestock and wildlife populations while maintaining range health on this diminishing vegetation type. Digitized
aerial photographs of 12 km of valley bottom from 1958 and 1974 were co-registered to ortho-rectified digital imagery taken
in 1998, and an un-supervised classification used to determine areas associated with grassland and shrubland in each year.
Field data from 2002 were over-layed using GPS coordinates to refine the classification using a calibration-validation procedure.
Over the 40-year study period, open grasslands declined from 1,111 ha in 1958 to 465 ha in 1998, representing a 58% decrease.
Using mean production data for grass and shrub dominated areas we then quantified aggregate changes in grazing capacity of
both primary (grassland) and secondary (shrubland) habitats for livestock and wildlife. Total declines in grazing capacity
from 1958 to 1998 totaled 2,744 Animal Unit Months (AUMs) of forage (−39%), including a 58% decrease in primary (i.e., open
grassland) range, which was only partly offset by the availability of 1,357 AUMs within less productive and less accessible
shrubland habitats. Our results indicate shrub encroachment has been extensive and significantly reduced forage availability
to domestic livestock and wildlife, and will increase the difficulty of conserving remaining grasslands. Although current
grazing capacities remain marginally above those specified by regulated grazing policies, it is clear that continued habitat
change and decreases in forage availability are likely to threaten the condition of remaining grasslands. Unless shrub encroachment
is arrested or grassland restoration initiated, reductions in aggregate ungulate numbers may be necessary.
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Keywords: | Shrub encroachment Digital image analysis Grazing capacity Grassland loss Livestock-wildlife conflict Range health |
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