ABSTRACT:
A 3-year study on the influence of some common brush control techniques on soil erosion was conducted on a clay loam site in low to fair range condition. Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) control by shredding, mechanical grubbing, vibratilling, and foliar spraying with 2, 4, 5-T + picloram reduced erosion. Plowing, disking, and seeding to kleingrass (Panicum coloratum) did not reduce erosion compared to the check. Brush control treatments removed mesquite competition, thus increasing the standing crop and cover of herbaceous plants. On the kleingrass, shred, foliar spray, mechanical grub, and check treatments, the amount of plant material protecting the soil surface was the most important variable controlling soil loss. Plant cover, standing crop, organic carbon, and total porosity all related positively to each other. As plant cover and biomass increased, organic carbon and porosity increased and erosion decreased. The absence of grazing for 3 years did not change site condition sufficiently to reduce erosion on the check.
Footnotes
Donald J. Bedunah is an assistant professor of range resource management, School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula, 59812, and Ronald E. Sosebee is a professor in the Department of Range and Wildlife Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 79409. This report is contribution No. T-9-379. College of Agricultural Science, Texas Tech University.
- Copyright 1986 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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