Recovery and recolonization of hard-bottom macroalgal communities vary temporally and spatially because of multiple biotic and abiotic factors. This study examined the relative importance of grazing on recolonization rates of sessile organisms in a high latitude environment, the Boulder Patch in the Beaufort Sea. A simple manipulative experiment using cleared boulders and cages was used to test the hypothesis that grazing causes slow recovery of sessile macrophytic and macrofaunal communities. Monitoring cleared boulders (caged and uncaged) for three years resulted in no growth of any sessile organism for the first two years.