Juniper Skeletons

Thinning rangelands by removing trees such as juniper is a common mangement action done across the intermountain west. The goals of this type of vegetation treatment typically are to increase forage and habitat for grazing animals, improve soil conditions, and/or reduce risks of catastrophic fire. In this photo, skeletons leftover from a chaining treatment dot a range in Northern Arizona. This treatment was performmed in the 1950s and over 60 years later, the traces of previous land management decisions remain, including the lasting increase in perennial grass cover. Chaining is just one type of treatment done to thin rangelands, and the effects of these treatments have various long-term effects. Find out more about tree thinning, the types of treatments commonly done, and how the costs of these actions relate to the outcomes at the Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program website or read this science brief on USGS research on this topic.