40 miles south of ALpine Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

West Texas Reviewer: No response from owner. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact me (by email), and assuming it meets the current guidelines, I'll be happy to unarchive it.

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Hidden : 4/28/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


The Trans-Pecos was once a savanna of grasses with interspersed shrubs. It is now mostly shrubby woodland. The reasons for this change are sometimes difficult to determine, but have been broken down into two main factors. These two major factors that account for the switch in vegetation types are over grazing and fire reduction.
The main use of the land has been grazing for cattle and other large herbivores. Most of the region was over grazed by owners in order to get the maximum yield for the space used. The overgrazing has given advantage to shrubs in two separate ways. The herbaceous plants were weakened by heavy grazing and eventually lead to death of the most desirable bunchgrass species. These desirable species were adapted to live in a dry climate, as well as fire. Their roots are deep and the growing parts are protected below the surface of the soil. The reduction of bunchgrasses gave way to communities of shallow rooted annual grasses and forbs with relatively small amount of biomass when compared with bunchgrass communities. The reduction of biomass and fine fuels led to the second major factor that allowed for vegetation shift: Fire
Fire has had a major role in many different ecosystems throughout the world and the Trans-Pecos savanna is not an exception. Fires role in this specific ecosystem is to remove the surface biomass, such as woody species. In the past, fire occurred naturally every 7-20 years and held the deep-rooted shrub species at bay. With human reduction of fire and an inadequate amount of fine fuels from overgrazing; shrubs have outcompeted the grasses, reduced the grazing quality of the Trans-Pecos and changed the community composition from grassland to shrubby woodland.
Many private owners have seen the change and have started do things to mitigate and manage the change. Some examples that we can see on the way to this site are manual grubbing and herbicide spray treatments. Many ranchers have also started performing controlled burns as well, to better mimic the natural cycle. All three of these methods have been developed to reduce the amount of woody shrubs and open the area up for grasses.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

10 zrgref Abegu hc gur srapr yvar sebz gur tngr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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