been much more reasonable in recent years than earlier. We 

 believe that as long as overall grazing pressure by domestic 

 livestock is light to moderate, the existing season-long 

 grazing system provides a patchwork of diversity, including 

 heavily grazed, moderately grazed, lightly grazed, and 

 ungrazed areas within the Breaks type. This diversity results 

 in a wide variety of plants species adapted to each situation. 

 The wider the variety, the greater the spread of maturation 

 dates and the more likely some species of value to deer will 

 occur under all environmental conditions. Both totally 

 ungrazed and heavily stocked areas would likely result in 

 lower diversity. 



Similarly, highly managed, "efficient beef production 

 grazing systems", often also promoted as good for vegetation 

 and soil may also result in monocultural vegetation patterns. 

 This, together with increased social disturbance associated 

 with intensively managed systems, would likely be detrimental 

 to mule deer. 



Finally, we caution that where riparian habitats comprise 

 an important portion of an area, conclusions about appropriate 

 grazing systems might be different than for "Breaks" habitat 

 type. 



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