Larry Caldwell wrote in message t...
In article ,
writes:

The "water thief" concept is a bizarre one for me. I understand removing
invasive non-native species that can dominate riparian zones - tamarisk for
example - but just whose water is being stolen? Cattle? Irrigators? And
who had it before cattle and irrigators? Buffalo and jackrabbits? What is
the water balance between what used to be available to streams and basins
(i.e. fish) before settlement and now. Is juniper invasive in sage? It
would seem they'd have very different water requirements.

It's all management, Mike. Fish and sage grouse are having a hard time,
while there is no shortage of juniper or the species that eat juniper
berries. In areas that get less than 15" of rainfall a year, juniper
will exterminate all competing vegetation, including sage.

It's interesting that you mention buffalo, because buffalo kill trees.
The Great Plains are a fossil artifact of the great buffalo herds that
used to kill off all the trees. Now that the buffalo are gone, trees are
encroaching on areas that are not farmed or disturbed. It takes a while
for a seed reservoir to build up, but 500 years from now the Great Plains
will be the Great Central Forest.

It also has to deal with percipitation = seeing That The historical
range of the bison was extensive, from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and
Canada south into the northern portions of the Mexican plateau, and
eastward to the Atlantic seaboard states, and all land in-between.
Before Europeans arrived, small herds of woodland bison inhabited
almost all of Georgia, except the southwestern and coastal parts of
the state and By 1819 all bison east of the Mississippi River were
gone forever = I think we can say more factors than just Bison or no
Bison effect the presence of trees on the great plains or in the
deserts of the Sahara!