Vegetation Analysis of Grazed and Ungrazed Alpine Hairgrass Meadows

Abstract

Alpine hairgrass meadows in Colorado and Wyoming were examined for plant species differences related to sheep grazing history. Nine alpine areas were studied and three of these had not been grazed by domestic sheep for many years. Frequency values for eight plants were found to be useful in determining whether or not hairgrass meadows have been predominantly grazed over the years by domestic sheep. No additional information was obtained by including species cover data for classification purposes.