The Thunder Basin National Grassland is located in northeastern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

in the Powder River Basin between the

Big Horn Mountains The Bighorn Mountains ( cro, Basawaxaawúua, lit=our mountains or cro, Iisaxpúatahchee Isawaxaawúua, label=none, lit=bighorn sheep's mountains) are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a nort ...

and the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...

. The Grassland ranges in elevation from , and the climate is semi-arid. The Grassland provides opportunities for recreation, including hiking, sightseeing, hunting, and fishing. There are no developed campgrounds; however, camping is allowed. Land patterns are very complex because of the intermingled federal, state, and private lands. In descending order of land area, it is located in parts of Weston, Converse,

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

, Niobrara, and

Crook Crook is another name for criminal. Crook or Crooks may also refer to: Places * Crook, County Durham, England, a town * Crook, Cumbria, England, village and civil parish * Crook Hill, Derbyshire, England * Crook, Colorado, United States, a ...

counties. It is managed together with

Medicine Bow - Routt National Forest Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

from Forest Service offices in

Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...

; its local ranger district office is in

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...

Ecology

Thunder Basin National Grassland is found along the

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

, or transition zone, between the Great Plains to the east and the sagebrush steppe to the west, and occurs across a gradient of temperature, precipitation, and elevation. As with grasslands in the Great Plains, the Thunder Basin evolved with disturbance from drought, grazing, fire and burrowing mammals. Burrowing mammals play a functional role in the grasslands. Prairie dogs increase habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity at multiple scales across the landscape by creating burrows and areas of open grassland habitat that differ from the surrounding areas and serve as habitat for other species. Thunder Basin grassland is home to over 100 species of birds; large herbivores such as pronghorn and mule deer; small mammals like black-tailed prairie dogs, white-tailed jackrabbits, cotton tails, kangaroo rats, thirteen lined-ground squirrels, and bats; and predators such as swift fox, badgers, coyote and red fox. Domestic livestock grazing (sheep and cattle) is practiced by

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

ing families throughout the grassland. The area includes both sagebrush and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

plant communities, which interact with a range of ecological disturbances to support diverse wildlife species. Researchers surveyed birds on active black-tailed prairie dog colonies and previously burned areas, as well as on paired undisturbed sites, and found that only prairie dog colonies supported breeding habitat for the imperiled

mountain plover The mountain plover (''Charadrius montanus'') is a medium-sized ground bird in the plover family (Charadriidae). It is misnamed, as it lives on level land. Unlike most plovers, it is usually not found near bodies of water or even on wet soil; i ...

(''Charadrius montanus''). On the other hand, large, contiguous areas of sagebrush cover are required to support

sage-grouse Sage-grouse are grouse belonging to the bird genus ''Centrocercus.'' The genus includes two species: the Gunnison grouse (''Centrocercus minimus'') and the greater sage-grouse (''Centrocercus urophasianus''). These birds are distributed through ...

conservation. Management for

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

in this complex ecosystem depends on managing for a shifting mosaic of different disturbances to meet the needs of multiple species. In Thunder Basin, historical wildfires do not promote the invasion of

cheatgrass ''Bromus tectorum'', known as downy brome, drooping brome or cheatgrass, is a winter annual grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and northern Africa, but has become invasive in many other areas. It now is present in most of Europe, southe ...

(''Bromus tectorum)'' as they do in the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

, where a fire-invasion feedback loop leads to plant community conversion in sagebrush ecosystems. An area with prairie dog colonies of nearly was reduced to about after an outbreak of

sylvatic plague Sylvatic plague is an infectious bacterial disease caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis'') that primarily affects rodents, such as prairie dogs. It is the same bacterium that causes bubonic and pneumonic plague in humans. Sylvatic, or ...

in 2017.

References

External links

*
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests & Thunder Basin National Grassland
- U.S. Forest Service {{authority control Grasslands of Wyoming National Grasslands of the United States Medicine Bow National Forest Routt National Forest Protected areas of Weston County, Wyoming Protected areas of Converse County, Wyoming Protected areas of Campbell County, Wyoming Protected areas of Niobrara County, Wyoming Protected areas of Crook County, Wyoming Protected areas established in 1960 1960 establishments in Wyoming