Livestock producers in Utah and other western states depend heavily on forage produced on public rangelands but grazing by livestock is controversial. To address landuse issues the Utah State Legislature funded the Cedar Mountain Initiative (CMI). This document summarizes results from CMI wildlife-livestock interaction studies. Objectives were to determine mule deer responses to livestock, describe mule deer summer vegetation-use patterns on livestock-grazed rangelands, and describe elk habitat-use patterns on livestock-grazed rangelands. 

Research occurred on Cedar Mountain located 25 km southeast of Cedar City, Utah. Eight 2-pasture grazing replications each consisting of two 70 ha pastures were used. Four replications were grazed by cattle and 3 by sheep under a deferred-rotation grazing system. Two pastures were not grazed by livestock. Livestock grazing initiated in mid-June and terminated in October. Wildlife location data were collected from April to November in 2000 and 2001 by fitting mule deer does and cow elk with GPS collars. A randomized complete block model was used with three factors where data was blocked by animal and the three factors were Pasture (or Vegetation), Grazing Period, and Time of Day. The statistical model tested the effects of time of day and grazing period on pasture and vegetation use patterns. Deer avoided livestock but returned to areas once livestock were removed. Deer home range size decreased during livestock grazing. Grasslands were important for deer. The most concentrated elk use on the study site was during late livestock grazing. Elk preferred livestock-grazed pastures but avoided pastures when livestock were present. Not all elk were intolerant to the presence of livestock. Elk used certain ungrazed pastures significantly less after livestock grazing compared to any other period. Elk used forests and dense cover vegetation more than grasslands. Elk selectively used grasslands but focused their use to times of low human, livestock, and possibly predator activity. 

Results suggest that although deer and elk were spatially intolerant to livestock, they preferred habitats previously grazed by cattle and sheep. Findings reaffirm complex relationships between vegetation community, mule deer, elk, and domestic livestock, especially cattle, and that these relationships could be manipulated through grazing management.