The prevailing vegetation is an upland grassland, or steppe. Pine woodlands are confined to 

 broken topography and are most extensive on the more sheltered slopes. Large upland areas are 

 dominated by Rocky Mountain juniper in the southern end of the District. The best developed 

 stands of the most mesophytic forest types found in the study area occur on the north side of the 

 high east-west-trending divide in the northern part of the District between the East Fork Otter 

 Creek and Beaver Creek; ponderosa pine dominates, with a variety of hardwoods in the draws 

 (including small stands of Populus tremuloides, which is rare on the District). The most fertile, 

 mesic lands in the vicinity are mostly privately owned; particularly the major drainage bottoms 

 have a history of farming or intensive grazing. Large areas of exposed ridges, buttes, and 

 badlands are sparsely vegetated with successional plant associations or topoedaphic climaxes that 

 have not yet been studied. Plant associations that have been sampled to date on the District are: 



Agropyron spicatum/Bouteloua curtipendula 

 Agropyron spicatum/Carex filifolia 

 Andropogon scoparius/Carex filifolia 

 Artemisia cana/Agropyron smithii 

 Artemisia tridentata/Agropyron smithii 

 Artemisia tridentata/Agropyron spicatum 

 Festuca idahoensis/Carex heliophila 

 Fraxinus pennsylvanica/Primus virginiana 

 Juniperns scopulornm/Agropyron spicatum 

 Finns ponderosa/Agropyron spicatum 

 Pinus ponderosa/Carex heliophila 

 Finns ponderosa/Festuca idahoensis 

 Finns ponderosa/Frnnus virginiana 

 Rhus aromatica/ Ag}-opyron spicatum 

 Rhus aromatica/Festuca idahoensis 

 Sarcobatus vermiculatns/Agropyron smithii 

 Sarcobatus vermiculatns/Agropyron spicatum 

 Stipa comata/Carex heliophila 



These are provisionally treated as climax habitat types (Hansen and Hoffman 1988). The set is 

 not considered complete for the District (DiBenedetto pers. comm.), and does not flilly represent 

 the wetland habitats or successional phases among the habitats occupied by the target species. 

 This area has a history of recurrent wildfires, and some of the areas surveyed had burned in 1993 

 wildfires. Prescribed burning is also being used on the District as a management tool. 



The Ashland District has an admixture of the Great Plains flora combined with the Rocky 

 Mountain flora, as is expressed in the Black Hills. There are also eastern deciduous forest 

 species and widely distributed native species of unknown affinity, as well as exotic species and 

 trace amounts of Great Basin, boreal, and other floristic affinity groups. 



