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Michael Newby wrote:What timing for this question, Geoff Lawton just addressed this in his latest video. It's really more of an overview, not too in depth, but it gives hope. Unless you have the ability to plant immediately afterwards I would advise against pulling out any large areas of brush at once. I'd probably look at making some swales starting at the high point of the property. Once the swales were in place if I could I would interplant as many relevant plants as I could get my hands on and do annual or twice a year chop-and-drop with a lot of the material going into the swales. The sagebrush will protect the young plants as they get established and can then be phased out over the years as the new plants really take hold. For larger acreage I'd probably try to mow/grind the brush to 6" or so above ground level in the early spring to get a large amount of mulch on the ground to help retain the moisture that came in the fall/winter/spring. If you have the time you can make seedballs to broadcast around the area or you can just direct broadcast seed. Look into dryland pasture seed mixes that include some kind of N-fixing plants in the mix as well as any native grasses/forbs you can get. After a few years of establishment phase you should be able to start mob-grazing some of those cattle in there on what will probably be a far superior forage than the (more than likely) standard managed pasture.
That's jut one option, a lot depends on what your real long term goals for the property any yourselves are. If you haven't already, you might want to look into silviculture as well, lots of good techniques there.
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