Effects of Sheep Grazing on a Riparian-Stream Environment

摘要

A stream section in a meadow receiving high intensity grazing from sheep was almost five times as wide and only one-fifth as deep (average) as an adjoining stream section where the meadow received light or no grazing. In the heavily grazed area, undercut banks were eliminated, streambanks were outsloped, and water depth at the stream surface-stream channel interface was only one-thirteenth as deep as in the lightly or non-grazed area. To hold sheep on meadows for long periods of time is probably detrimental to the riparian-stream ecosystem.