Grazing After the Burn

The rangelands and dry forests of Eastern Washingtonare considered “disturbance-driven” ecosystems. Disturbancesare simply events that disturb normal ecosystemprocesses: nutrient and water cycling, plantgrowth and reproduction, animal interactions, etc.While all ecosystems experience some forms of disturbance,areas (like Eastern Washington) with extremetemperature variation, rough topography, scarcityof water, high soils variability, and high fire frequencyexperience more frequent and more severedisturbance than a Florida swamp forest, for an obviousexample. Fire and grazing are both a disturbanceby nearly any definition of “disturbance.” Short- andlong-term effects of fire and grazing are dependent ona multitude of factors, including the frequency, season,duration, pre-existing vegetation conditions, andintensity of the disturbance event.