Restoration of plains bison (Bison bison bison) in the northern Great Plains has been controversial for a variety of reasons, including the public concern that bison will supplant cattle on public rangelands. Riparian zones are among the most biologically rich areas within rangelands, but they are highly sensitive to disturbances such as grazing, leading to the public perception that riparian vegetation communities will be negatively impacted by year-round bison grazing compared with the norm of seasonal cattle grazing. Our objective was to evaluate the vegetation community and soil compaction conditions of areas in the northern Great Plains of Montana, where bison have been restored 5−10 yr as year-round grazers, compared with adjacent sites where cattle have been retained as seasonal grazers. Out of the 24 variables we assessed, only 2 significantly differed between the grazer treatments within our study's time frame and stocking rates. Native species diversity was significantly higher in the bison-grazed treatment (F_[1,1,5.98] = 8.16, P = 0.03), and woody height heterogeneity was twice as high in the bison-grazed treatment than the cattle-grazed treatment (F_[1,5.97] = 5.81, P = 0.05). Although longer-term studies are required, our findings indicate that year-round bison grazing under the current stocking rates did not degrade riparian vegetation communities compared with seasonal cattle grazing and rather benefitted some aspects of the plant community.

平原野牛（Bison 野牛）的恢复由于多种原因，北部大平原的野牛一直存在争议，其中包括公众担心野牛将取代公共牧场上的牛。河岸带是牧场内生物最丰富的地区之一，但它们对放牧等干扰高度敏感，导致公众认为与季节性牛放牧的常态相比，河岸植被群落将受到全年野牛放牧的负面影响。我们的目标是评估蒙大拿州北部大平原地区的植被群落和土壤压实条件，这些地区的野牛已恢复为全年食草动物，与邻近的牛作为季节性食草动物的地点进行比较。在我们评估的 24 个变量中，在我们研究的时间范围内，放牧率和放养率之间只有 2 项存在显着差异。野牛放牧处理中的本地物种多样性显着更高（F_[1,1,5.98]  = 8.16，P  = 0.03），野牛放牧处理中的木本高度异质性是牛放牧处理中的两倍（F _[1,5.97] = 5.81，P  = 0.05）。尽管需要进行更长期的研究，但我们的研究结果表明，与季节性牛放牧相比，在当前放养率下，全年野牛放牧并没有使河岸植被群落退化，反而使植物群落的某些方面受益。