Utah wildfires create chance to curb cheatgrass

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Published: Monday, Aug. 6, 2007 12:34 a.m. MDT
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This year's wildfires created an opportunity to fight cheatgrass across huge swaths of the state. But it's not only an opportunity, says Mark Brunson, professor in the department of environment and society at Utah State University, "It's imperative."

Mike Kuhns, a professor in the department of wildland resources at the Logan university, adds that the biggest problem will be to find seeds for restoration projects.

So far this year, 724 wildfires have burned more than 670,000 acres in Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. While this is a huge region, it's not as vast as the burned region in Nevada, nearly 882,000 acres, or Idaho, about 850,000 acres.

Nationally, wildfires have hit nearly 5 million acres, not counting prescribed burns. According to Brunson, figures may vary because some places burned lightly, others have unburned splotches in a sea of black, and in others "it charred everything."

However, without doubt huge sections of ground once covered with cheatgrass, juniper, sagebrush and other plants have lost vegetation.

Cheatgrass is called that because it cheats livestock and wildlife out of good grazing. A native of Eurasia, Bromus tectorum, it grows throughout Utah, pushing out more useful plants. It is "dominant over large areas," says the 1988 reference book by Beverly J. Albee, Leila M. Shultz and Sherel Goodrich, "Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Utah."

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"Cheatgrass is an annual that is fire-prone," Kuhns said, "very fire-prone." It completes its growth cycle in a year and is dead and dried, a reddish-purple hue, when competing plants are coming into full growth.

Cheatgrass is poor forage and when it dries it is fine tinder for wildfire. If cheatgrass catches on fire, the plants are already dead and the seeds remain dormant until the next growing season. But native perennials are still in mid-growth and can be wiped out before preparing the next generation.

Come spring, cheatgrass seeds germinate without competition.

"It's just hard for more desirable plants to get established in a cheatgrass environment," Kuhns said.

Brunson said he doesn't know how much of the burned area was cheatgrass, but the species is "very good at taking advantage of recently burned areas."

A good strategy, he added, is to quickly get other plants established wherever appropriate.

"If we do not plant, there will be plants in there," he said. "The plants that will grow without some sort of restoration activity are more likely to be weedy invaders. They are more likely to be undesirable non-native plants."

What species to plant is a major question. Ranchers may favor grasses that are better for livestock. Others may prefer a mix that encourages biological diversity or provides better shelter for wildlife.

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Much land burned in Salt Creek fire was covered in cheatgrass. Experts say it is imperative to plant seeds before the weeds return. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret Morning News)
Scott G. Winterton, Deseret Morning News
Much land burned in Salt Creek fire was covered in cheatgrass. Experts say it is imperative to plant seeds before the weeds return.