Resting a pasture for two growing seasons postburn is a common recommendation in the Intermountain West since at least the ’80s. “The question is, ‘Is there a real reason two full years rest are needed after fire?’” says University of Idaho (U of I) area extension range educator K. Scott Jensen. “Can it occur sooner than that without delay or harm to postfire recovery? We wanted to put some science to it.”

Invasive plants have created novel rangeland landscapes, requiring novel responses in vegetation management. We cannot turn back the clock to a time before cheatgrass, medusahead and ventenata – invasive annual grasses that are part of the new normal in the western U.S.

Last spring, the U.S. Department of the Interior published a proposal with the potential to shift priorities on 245 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A public comment period yielded thousands of substantive comments for the BLM to consider.

Cheatgrass, an invasive annual grass that has invaded vast swaths of Western rangelands, is responsible for much of the increasing wildfire danger in the Intermountain West. However, scientists at the University of Nevada – Reno have discovered that fire danger can be reduced through the application of targeted cattle grazing in the dormant growing season by attracting the cattle with stations containing protein feed supplements.

Strategic grazing on cheatgrass-dominated rangelands can control this invasive annual grass and reduce wildfires.