During the 1950s and 1960s, land management agencies across the western United States carried out extensive programmes with the aim of reducing sagebrush cover and establishing grasslands that could provide forage for livestock. Crested wheatgrass, a perennial grass introduced from Eurasia, was one of the principal plants used for this programme. This plant species established relatively easily and tolerated aggressive grazing.According to the US Forest Service , seeding with non-native grasses, primarily crested wheatgrass, had affected around 6.4 million acres of sagebrush land by the 1970s.
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