Dry-season grazing with small ruminants enhances native diversity in invaded oak woodlands

Oak woodlands are biodiversity hotspots that provide critical ecosystem services and hold significant cultural value. However, these ecosystems are increasingly threatened by invasive grasses, which suppress native plant diversity, elevate fire risk, and disrupt ecosystem processes. While targeted grazing is gaining popularity as a management technique for controlling invasives, the ecological impacts of dry-season grazing are understudied, as are outcomes for native species.
We evaluated the effectiveness of targeted summer grazing with small ruminants for reducing invasive grass fuel loads and enhancing plant diversity in oak woodlands of California by comparing plant species richness and abundance in paired grazed and ungrazed plots over multiple years.
Grazing substantially increased richness and cover of native forbs. Nonnative cover was unaffected, though minor increases in nonnative forb numbers were observed. Ordination analysis revealed that grazing shifted plant community comp..., , # Dry-season grazing with small ruminants enhances native diversity in invaded oak woodlands

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkvr](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkvr)

## Description of the data and file structure

Vegetation monitoring was conducted at the Wantrup Preserve in Napa County, California—a 730-acre mosaic of blue oak (*Quercus douglasii*) woodlands and interspersed annual grasslands managed by the Land Trust of Napa County. The experiment was designed to assess the long-term effects of targeted grazing on native and nonnative plant communities within this invaded oak woodland ecosystem. Paired 1 m² plots (one grazed, one ungrazed) were established across the preserve, initially on an interior grid and later along accessible perimeter transects. Ungrazed plots were enclosed with fencing, while grazed plots remained open to livestock. Goats were used for grazing from 2016 to 2019 and sheep from 2020 to 2022, with treatments applied each summer to remove accumulated dry...,