Juniper Encroachment and Removal in Eastern Montana Rangelands

USDA ARS scientists documented the effects of juniper encroachment and mechanical removal in eastern Montana's mixed-grass prairie, starting in 2024. The dataset focuses on public grazing allotments administered by the Bureau of Land Management, measuring rangeland structure, composition, herbaceous productivity, and forage availability. It provides a basis for understanding invasive species dynamics and restoration outcomes in a semi-arid ecosystem.

Use Cases

• Assessing forage availability for livestock based on herbaceous productivity measurements.
• Evaluating the ecological impact of mechanical juniper removal on plant community structure and composition.
• Modeling invasive species dynamics in mixed-grass prairie ecosystems.
• Informing rangeland restoration and management strategies on public grazing lands.

Strengths

• Dataset is publicly available under a permissive CC0 1.0 license, allowing for unrestricted reuse.
• Research is conducted by USDA ARS scientists on defined public lands, suggesting a structured, institutional methodology.
• Cross-platform presence on figshare indicates established sharing and potential for wider visibility.

Limitations

• Column names and a precise row count are not provided, limiting understanding of the data's granularity and structure.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is limited, with documentation beginning only in 2024.
• The geographic scope is specific to eastern Montana, which may limit generalizability to other rangeland systems.

Provenance

Source

Devan McGranahan, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Collection Method

Field documentation of juniper encroachment and removal effects on BLM-administered grazing allotments.

Time Range

Beginning in 2024.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-03-20.

Geography

Eastern Montana, USA, specifically public grazing allotments administered by the US Bureau of Land Management.