Post-Grazing Compositional Analysis of an Anthropogenically Altered Northern Fescue Grassland in Northwestern Montana

Abstract

Abstract Recognizing successional recovery gradients following release from disturbance is important for sustainable land management. To evaluate the recovery and transitions of vegetation post disturbance there needs to be a chronology of community succession. This study in northwestern Montana evaluated the composition of recognized plant communities and proposes successional recovery pathways of the native grassland following release from livestock grazing. Initial surveys were completed 15 years after grazing ended. Inventories of 16 herbaceous vegetation communities indicate that litter depth was the only statistically significant factor related to community composition (P = 0.03) and, importantly, was highly correlated with non-native species canopy cover (r = 0.904). The lack of litter was correlated with the persistence of three climax species (r = 0.736). Comparisons with published grassland community descriptions indicated the intermontane grasslands in this refuge are part of two Northern Fescu...