When hikers returned to UC Davis Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in 2016, a year after the Wragg wildfire, many expected to see a devastated landscape. They did, but many were also energized about the new changes they saw. Allie Weill, then a graduate student with Professor Andrew Latimer, Plant Sciences, published a paper on this.
Truman Young, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis, co-authored an article showing that megaherbivores (elephants) mitigate the negative effects of cattle on tropical African savanna rangelands, where wild herbivore populations are declining. He is project director of the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE), the most productive field experiment in Africa, and the site of this research.
This winter’s lack of rain, up until mid-March, did not produce much forage for cattle, or carryover vegetation. Leslie Roche, Department of Plant Sciences, covers rangelands and pasturelands, and says this has been commonplace this winter. Many grasses are producing seeds earlier, leading to less vegetative growth.
