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  • Quit Yer Horsin’ Around! The Effects of Trampling on Vegetation in Montana
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Quit Yer Horsin’ Around! The Effects of Trampling on Vegetation in Montana

  • Article
  • Middle School
  • 1 Classroom Period
  • Recreation
  • Wilderness
  • Back Country
  • Erosion
  • Hiking
  • Horse
  • Llamas
  • Pack animals
  • Wilderness
A black and white illustration of three kids, two of which are standing in front of a llama and horse.
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When people go hiking or camping in back country or wilderness areas, they almost always impact the natural environment in some way. When people use the back country, they sometimes use pack animals to make their trip easier. While much trampling occurs on trails, for pack animals, it can also occur where the animals are grazing. The scientists in this article studied what happens to vegetation that is being trampled by people, horses, and llamas.

Quit Yer Horsin’ Around! The Effects of Trampling on Vegetation in Montana

Part Of

Rocky Mountain - Vol. 2 No. 1

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  • In this FACTivity, you will determine whether trampling has an effect on plants by simulating different conditions. Materials: Four shoeboxes or similarly sized boxes, lined with plastic Four squares of...

    FACTivity – Quit Yer Horsin’ Around!

    • Activity
    • Middle School
    • 1 Classroom Period
    • Recreation
    • Wilderness
    • Experiment
    • Hands-on
    • Human Impacts
    • Modeling
    • Outdoor Activity
    • Vegetation
    In this FACTivity, you will determine whether trampling has an effect on plants by simulating different conditions. Materials: Four shoeboxes or similarly sized boxes, lined with plastic Four squares of...
    Explore Activity Download FACTivity (PDF)
    Explore Activity Download FACTivity (PDF)

    Part Of

    Quit Yer Horsin' Around! The Effects of Trampling on Vegetation in Montana

  • Test your knowledge on vegetative cover, control groups, and erosion.

    Word Search – Quit Yer Horsin’ Around

    • Activity
    • Middle School
    • Less than 30 minutes
    • Recreation
    • Control
    • Erosion
    • Hiking
    • Vegetation
    • Vocabulary
    Test your knowledge on vegetative cover, control groups, and erosion.
    Explore Activity Download Word Search (PDF) Answer Key (PDF)
    Explore Activity Download Word Search (PDF) Answer Key (PDF)

    Part Of

    Quit Yer Horsin' Around! The Effects of Trampling on Vegetation in Montana

Glossary

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  • back country

    (bak kǝn trē): A remote undeveloped rural area.

  • control

    (kǝn trōl): A variable factor that has been kept constant and which is used as a standard of comparison to the experimental component in a controlled experiment.

  • domestic

    (dǝ me stik): Living with or under the care of human beings.

  • erosion

    (i rō zhǝn): The process of deteriorating or disappearing by wearing away.

  • forest manager

    (fȯr ǝst ma ni jǝr): A person who manages a forest; in the Forest Service, forest managers focus on managing vegetation, restoring ecosystems, reducing hazards, and maintaining forest health (definition from USDA Forest Service).

  • fragile

    (fra jǝl): Easily broken or destroyed; delicate.

  • natural resource

    (na ch(ǝ) rǝl rē sȯrs): A feature or phenomenon in nature that enhances the quality of human life.

  • statistical test

    (stǝ ti sti kǝl test): A test that uses numbers and probability to determine relationship.

  • trampling

    (tram p(ǝ) liŋ): Walking or traveling heavily so as to bruise, crush, or injure things underfoot.

  • treatment

    (trēt mǝnt): Something that researchers administer or change in experimental units to test something or run a trial.

  • vegetation

    (ve jǝ tā shǝn): Plant life or total plant cover of an area.

  • vegetative cover

    (ve jǝ tā tiv kǝ vǝr): Plants that cover the ground.

  • Dr. David Cole standing on a cliff in front of a snowy mountain range.

    David Cole

    Environmental Science

    I like being a scientist because I get to exercise my curiosity and discover things that might help make the world a better place.  
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  • Education Standards
  • Educator Guide
  • Education Files

Standards addressed in this Article:

Social Studies Standards

Social Studies Standards are educational guidelines outlining the essential knowledge, skills, and concepts students should learn in subjects such as history, geography, civics, and economics, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of societal structures, historical events, and global perspectives.
  • People, Places, and Environments
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Time, Continuity, and Change

Note To Educators

The Forest Service's Mission

The Forest Service’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. For more than 100 years, our motto has been “caring for the land and serving people.” The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), recognizes its responsibility to be engaged in efforts to connect youth to nature and to promote the development of science-based conservation education programs and materials nationwide.

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What Is the Natural Inquirer?

Natural Inquirer is a science education resource journal to be used by students in grade 6 and up. Natural Inquirer contains articles describing environmental and natural resource research conducted by Forest Service scientists and their cooperators. These scientific journal articles have been reformatted to meet the needs of middle school students. The articles are easy to understand, are aesthetically pleasing to the eye, contain glossaries, and include hands-on activities. The goal of Natural Inquirer is to stimulate critical reading and thinking about scientific inquiry and investigation while teaching about ecology, the natural environment, and natural resources.

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  • Meet the Scientists

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  • What Kinds of Scientist Did This Research?

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  • Thinking About Science

    Introduces something new about the scientific process, such as a scientific habit of mind or procedures used in scientific studies.

  • Thinking About the Environment

    Introduces the environmental topic being addressed in the research.

  • Introduction

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  • Method

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  • Findings & Discussion

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  • Reflection Section

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  • Number Crunches

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  • Glossary

    Defines potentially new scientific or other terms to students. The first occurrence of a glossary word is bold in the text.

  • Citation

    Gives the original article citation with an internet link to the original article.

  • FACTivity

    Presents a hands-on activity that emphasizes something presented in the article.


Science Education Standards

You will find a listing of education standards which are addressed by each article at the back of each publication and on our website.


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