Authors: Mudrák, Ondřej; Dvorský, Miroslav;Doležal, Jiří;Jirků, Miloslav;

An increasingly practiced way of managing habitats with conservational value is naturalistic grazing by large herbivores. Their (re)introduction has the potential to restore and enhance biodiversity, creating self-sustainable environments vital for organisms requiring regular disturbances to moderate successional changes. European bison, Exmoor pony, and Tauros cattle were introduced in 2015 to a former military training area in Milovice, Czech Republic. The prevailing vegetation type is a forest-steppe savanna with Bromus erectus-dominated xeric grasslands mixed with deciduous shrubs and trees. After the cessation of military use, the area was abandoned which led to successional changes, including the dominance of tall grasses, litter accumulation and bush encroachment. In 2017–2021, we monitored grassland vegetation in 30 grazed permanent plots (2×2 m) and 5 control plots representative of ungrazed, abandoned vegetation adjacent to the grazed areas. Naturalistic grazing increased species richness and the cover of forbs, while the cover of grasses and legumes was minimally affected. Grazing promoted a compositional change to small statured species and an increased incidence of red-list species. Seven years of continuous grazing increased the conservation value of this forest-steppe vegetation, a habitat type rapidly declining in Europe.