Maggie McCallister ’19, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Certificate(s): Environmental Policy, Sustainable Energy
I worked on a study that focused on how different grazing regimes affect habitat use by wildlife. I followed the movements and grazing behaviors of various livestock species under different husbandry regimes. I then compared the impacts of these strategies on the diversity, abundance and quality of rangeland vegetation, as well as on the rangeland use and diets of wildlife and livestock species. I regularly monitored camera traps and placed small GPS tags on livestock to track their movements. Additionally, data were collected for the surrounding vegetation of grazed areas. The covariance of movements will be used in future work to assess the impact of different grazing regimes on wildlife movements and subsequent movements by pastoralist herders.