A consideration to the grassland landscape control by grazing, mowing and their stop in the Nobeyama highlands [Japan], 1: Change of grassland by stop and resumption of grazing
1998
Baba, T. (Shinshu Univ., Minamiminowa, Nagano (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture) | Itoh, S.
The landscape of grassland which was used for grazing or mowing has been lost rapidly by the stop of these usages in recent years. By the arrest of control of grassland including burning-off and cutting of grass and grazing, the succession of vegetation to its forestation occurred and the landscape as grassland became worse. However, in areas like as those around Mt. Yatsugatake, the landscape of grassland with grazing cattle and sheep is now getting a new value as an element to attract tourists, as their number to the areas increases. The Highland Agriculture Research Institute of Shinshu University is located in Nobeyama, Nagano prefecture, at the eastern foot of Mt. Yatsugatake and then, in the area surrounding the institute, the change of grassland along with that of its use can be observed very clearly. In order to grasp the relationship between the grazing and the change of grassland landscape, we examined in the present study the effect of grazing on the vegetation on grasslands in the institute over 5 years from 1991 to 1995 by changing the density and duration of grazing and kind of livestock grazed experimentally. Vegetation with wild plants was damaged severely by overgrazing with cattle. The original vegetation was restored fairly quickly by the arrest of grazing, but in the land where the vegetation had already been bared the restoration to the original vegetation was suppressed by the luxuliance of naturalized plants. However, sheep introduced to such grassland preferred to eat these naturalized plants rather than wilderness plants, and when sheep grazing was continued. The original condition of grassland was restored and kept t\stable thereafter. On the basis of these results, the effectiveness of grazing and the proper method of its usage for the control of grassland landscape are discussed
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