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By Mark E. Miller, National Park Service
Actively grazed.
Latitude: 38° 09.687' N
Longitude: 109° 39.568' W
Elevation: 4987 ft (1520 m)
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CLIM-MET Site #8 is located on Bureau of Land Management land in Corral Pocket, approximately 2.8 km north of North Sixshooter Peak and 2.5 km west of Indian Creek. The Corral Pocket basin has a southwest-to-northeast orientation and drains into Indian Creek. The site is situated about 4.8 km from the head of the basin. According to the geologic map of Huntoon and others (1982), soils are formed in parent materials derived primarily from the red facies of the Permian-aged Cedar Mesa sandstone (for geologic descriptions, see Baars [1983], Condon and others [1989], and Condon [1997]). Soil at the site is described by Lammers (1991) Natural Resource Conservation Service (U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service 1991) as a fine sandy loam in the Bluechief series (a mesic, Typic Calciorthid). Elevation is approximately 1520 m.
Like the surrounding area as a whole, Corral Pocket has been grazed seasonally by domestic livestock since the 1880s. Currently, the basin is grazed by 150-200 cattle for 4-6 weeks each winter. Unlike the other three CLIM-MET sites in the Canyonlands area, the Corral Pocket basin receives light use by recreationists for running, camping, hiking, bicycling, and rock-climbing. A light-duty dirt road passes east-west approximately 20 m north of the site.
Vegetation at the site consists of a mixed grass-shrub community dominated primarily by native perennials. Dominants include the grasses Hilaria jamesii (galleta), Stipa hymenoides (Indian ricegrass), and Sporobolus contractus (spike dropseed), as well as the subshrub Gutierrezia sarothrae (Asteraceae, common name broom snakeweed) and the shrub Atriplex canescens. Subordinate native species at the site include the shrubs Coleogyne ramosissima (Rosaceae, blackbrush), Ceratoides lanata (Chenopodiaceae, winterfat), Ephedra viridis (Ephedraceae, Mormon tea); the perennial grass Aristida purpurea (purple threeawn), and forbs Linum aristalum (Linaceae, broom-flax), Sphaeralcea sp. (Malvaceae, globemallow), Ambrosia acanthicarpa (Asteraceae, ragweed), Helianthus petiolaris (Asteraeeae, prairie sunflower), Opuntia sp. (Cactaceae, prickly pear), Abroniafragans (Nyctaginaceae, sand verbena), and Stephanomeria sp. (Asteraeeae, wirelettuce). The exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum also occurs at the site, but rarely attains greater than 10 percent ground cover in spring (roughly equal to that covered by each of the major native grasses). The exotic forb Salsola pestifer is present but not abundant. Interspaces among plants are covered by a light biological soil crust (Harper and Marble, 1988, Belnap and Gardner, 1993) dominated by cyanobacteria.
Baars, D.L., 1983, The Colorado Plateau: a geologic history: Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 279 p.
Belnap, J., and Gardner, J.S., 1993, Soil microstructure in soils of the Colorado Plateau: the role of the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus: Great Basin Naturalist v. 53, no. 1, p. 40-47.
Condon, S.M., 1997, Geology of the Pennsylvanian and Permian Cutler Group and Permian Kaibab Limestone in the Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah and Southwestern Colorado: Washington D.C., Government Printing Office, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2000-P, 59 p.
Condon, S.M., Stanesco, J.D., Campbell, J.A., 1989, Revisions of Middle Jurassic nomenclature in southeastern San Juan Basin, New Mexico; Eolian and noneolian facies of the Lower Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone Member of the Cutler Formation, southeastern Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1808-E,F, chapter F, p. F1-F13.
Harper, K.T., and Marble, J.R., 1988, A role for nonvascular plants in management of arid and semiarid rangelands in Tueller, P.T. ed., Vegetation science applications for rangeland analysis and management: Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 135-169.
Huntoon, P.W., Billingsley, Jr., G.H., and Breed, W.J., 1982, Geologic map of Canyonlands National Park and vicinity, Utah: Moab, Utah, Canyonlands National History Association, scale 1-62, 500.
Lammers, D.A., 1991, Soil survey of Canyonlands area, Utah: parts of Grand and San Juan counties: [Wash. D.C.], USDA Soil Conservation Service, 293 p. + maps.
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/sw/clim-met/corral.html
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Page Last Modified: Thu 11-May-2006 14:15:31 MDT
