Eliminating  Junipers

Eliminating Junipers

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Federal officials are proposing one of the largest ever projects to remove juniper trees to protect habitat for imperiled sage grouse and might also benefit cattle ranchers.

 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced they plan to eliminate the trees from 940 square miles in Owyhee County in southwest Idaho.

"For juniper, these numbers are unprecedented," said Karen Launchbaugh, director of the University of Idaho's Rangeland Center. "This is bold."

Launchbaugh said the sheer scale of the project could give scientists new insights into how to deal with vast juniper forests across the West that have sprung up in the last century. Experts say juniper trees have expanded, displacing sagebrush needed by sage grouse and several hundred other species in many Western states due to fire suppression efforts and other human activities. The trees also reduce grasses for cattle.

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