Zhalute banner, Inner Mongolia, is located in the typical farming-pastoral zone of northern China. Investigation into its steppe vegetation and analysis in this paper show that the irrational change of land use pattern from pasture to farmland and the intensification of over-grazing on the remaining pastures have exerted severe impacts on the vegetation in last more than ten years. This is represented not only by the acreage reduction of the grassland, but also by the deterioration of the steppe vegetation and the degradation of the pastoral quality. The main reason behind the land degradation should be the fast expansion of human activity driven by the population growth. Returning the land use pattern back to more pastures and rotationally fencing part of the pastures to prevent over-grazing are feasible measures for the restoration succession of the steppe vegetation there.