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evening shots It's late, not enough time for a real entry. So a couple photos will have to do. Spent most of the day in a meeting discussing one of my favorite subjects: Sage-grouse. Would have been better if I'd actually remembered the meeting, instead of having to be called to ask if I was coming. They delayed the meeting 30 minutes for my arrival. Considering that I'm not even a formal representative on the group, either they're incredibly polite folks... Or they really wanted me there. As fun as that was, the evening was better. It was out in the country. Even if a major industrial site was rarely out of sight, nor was I often away from the rumbling sounds of traffic on the interstate. It was still sage being aromatically crushed under my wheels, and dust drifting up behind me. I (You notice I'm saying "I". Left the heelers at home. Not sure why, other than to keep the corgi company. Should have brought them along. They like revisiting the same routes, too.) found one herd of pronghorn by the old exclosure. For those unfamiliar with the term, as it applies to management of rangelands, an exclosure is a piece of range fenced off from everything else. To keep grazing animals out. A way to see exactly what effect the grazing is actually having on the landscape. Yes, grazing changes things. Maybe not where you get 30 inches of precip a year, but it certainly does when you get less than 10. I'm not sure about the history of this particular exclosure, but I'm betting it is one of a handful built in the 1960s, as part of one of the first-ever research projects on pronghorn. I know where two others are, and found a fourth once but I forget where. I suspect the is at most one person in the world who knows where all four of these are. But if you have the "trained" eye, you can see what has happened in almost fifty years of no grazing. The sagebrush plants inside are much larger, and more vigorous. The changes are just so subtle it takes decades for them to be noticeable. Also have been surprised so far at the numbers of twins I have been seeing, considering the winter we just came through. Haven't added any numbers up yet, of course, but I'm seeing a lot more of these than I expected. And now to bed. We need to be back at it before sunrise... |
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