The photo below was taken on Nov. 18 on a hillside that in late August was dusty, brown, apparently dead, but not grazed by cows. It is about a 2 by 3 foot area just below a sagebrush (not shown) in the Bannock Range south of Pocatello.
Where cattle have not destroyed the structure of the soil, cool weather and rain quickly brings an amazing proliferation of moss, lichens, and sprouting plants. Since the 18th there has been the first cold snap, and the area is probably frozen, but it will serve to collect and retain moisture, stop erosion, repel invaders like cheatgrass next spring and summer. No doubt by August 2008 it will again look dusty, brown and dead, perhaps not terribly different from cowed out country.
Similar photos could have been taken under most sagebrush and bitterbrush plants on the hillside.
Photo copyright Ralph Maughan. Nov. 18, 2007.
The Wildlife News 