Impacts of Herbicide Brush Management on Hydrology & Sedimentation at Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed

The conversion of grassland ecosystems has important ecological and economic consequences, including the loss of fertile topsoil, vegetation cover, and associated habitat and forage values. Shrub management strategies like herbicide treatments seek to reduce woody plant cover to allow for the recovery of grasslands. However, field studies of the impacts of herbicide treatment on runoff and sedimentation of shrub-encroached grasslands are lacking. Researchers at the University of Arizona and at the Agricultural Resource Service used field rain simulations, modeling approaches, and assessments of physical landscape attributes to compare runoff, sediment loss, and vegetation cover on Limy Slopes ecological sites at Walnut Gulch.