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Salt Desert Shrub Basins

Ecoregion in Rocky Mountains in WY, CO

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The arid Salt Desert Shrub Basins ecoregion includes disjunct playas and isolated sand dunes. The plains, terraces, and rolling alluvial fans of Ecoregion 18e have soils that tend to be more alkaline and less permeable than soils in the Rolling Sagebrush Steppe (18a). Vegetation is a sparse cover of arid land shrubs such as shadscale, greasewood, and Gardner’s saltbush, with some areas of big sagebrush. Areas with stabilized sand dunes are dominated by alkali cordgrass, Indian ricegrass, blowout grass, alkali wildrye, and needle-and-thread. Land use is rangeland and wildlife habitat. This arid region is sensitive to grazing pressure, which may promote the invasion of weeds such as Russian thistle, cheatgrass, and the toxic halogeton.

— EPA

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