Protecting restoration investments from the cheatgrass‐fire cycle in sagebrush steppe

Abstract

The U.S. federal government has recently committed to the difficult task of slowing and managing the invasive grass‐fire cycle in sagebrush steppe, where property, livelihoods, and entire ecosystems are at risk. To safely manage this crisis, the government recently proposed to construct about 17,700 km of fuel breaks and millions of hectares of fuel reduction treatments in six western states. A challenge for resource managers will be the strategic placement of these land treatments. We investigated the need for this massive effort from the perspective of protecting previous rehabilitation and restoration seeding investments, including over 3,400 seedings implemented from 1990 to 2019 covering about 24,540 km2. We found that portions of over 26% of these seedings have since burned representing nearly 17% of this seeded area. Locations that had recurrent wildfire had repeat treatments and thus multiple investments in the same location. Our analysis supports the management actions aimed at protecting remaining sagebrush and restoration investments, especially in areas where the invasive grass‐fire cycle is most pervasive. Given the decades required for most sagebrush to recover after wildfire, the urgency of this management intervention is evident. The specific details, placement, and effectiveness of these interventions could influence outcomes and potential unintended consequences.

Using Dynamic, Fuels-Based Fire Probability Maps to Reduce Large Wildfires in the Great Basin

“…Mean fire probability maps show that rangelands most often at risk of large fires occur in the northern and eastern Great Basin (see Fig. 2), which supports previous research documenting similar spatial patterns (Brooks et al 2015; Pilliod et al 2017; Short et al 2020; Pilliod et al 2021). Most areas exhibiting an increasing trend in fire probability are situated in and around areas with higher mean fire probability and previously burned areas, suggesting some spatial order to changing fuel conditions and associated fire risk (see Fig.…”

“…In portions of the northern and eastern Great Basin chronically impacted by invasive annual grasses and high risk of large fire, a sustained and large-scale fuels management approach to protect ecosystem services and rural communities is needed ( Perryman et al 2018 ;Davies et al 2021 ). Excluding suppression costs, the BLM spent $210 million on rehabilitating burned federal lands over the past decade alone ( Pilliod et al 2021 ). Since 1990, roughly 26% of those restoration seedings have at least partially reburned, potentially undermining recovery goals and taxpayer-funded investments ( Pilliod et al 2021 ).…”

“…7 ). Targeted implementation of fuel breaks in areas of chronically high fire risk, particularly those with low resilience to fire and resistance to invasion, represents a scenario in which potential benefits of proposed actions in terms of protecting unburned sagebrush, limiting annual grass conversion, and maintaining prior restoration investments likely outweighs risks, especially when combined with a long-term commitment to monitoring and maintenance ( Crist et al 2019 ;Pilliod et al 2021 ;Crist et al this issue ). Conversely, the mean fire probability map also highlights landscapes typically at low risk of large fire where ecological and economic trade-offs of fuel break construction may be more debatable (see Fig.…”

“…Excluding suppression costs, the BLM spent $210 million on rehabilitating burned federal lands over the past decade alone (Pilliod et al 2021). Since 1990, roughly 26% of those restoration seedings have at least partially reburned, potentially undermining recovery goals and taxpayer-funded investments (Pilliod et al 2021). Mitigating fire risks in and around these areas likely requires integrated management strategies (Perryman et al 2018; Davies et al 2021), such as implementation of strategic fuel break networks (Shinneman et al 2019; Clark et al this issue), incorporation of dormant season grazing (Davies et al 2015; Davies et al 2022), and enhanced prefire planning and suppression (Stratton 2020; Wollstein et al 2022).…”

The elevational ascent and spread of exotic annual grass dominance in the Great Basin, USA

“…We recommend land managers prioritize efforts to proactively prevent less-invaded rangelands from transitioning over reactive restoration of large-scale annual grasslands to their historical native plant communities, which is costly and ineffective (Davies et al, 2011;Pilliod et al, 2017). Such proactive management requires reducing exposure to annual grass seed sources (Sebastian et al, 2017), increasing resistance to invasion by promoting perennial plants (Chambers et al, 2014), strategic implementation of appropriate fuel treatments in fire-prone areas (Pilliod et al, 2021) and building adaptive capacity of local communities to respond early to the problem (Maestas et al, In Review). We acknowledge, however, that managers have few tools at their disposal and commonly lack sufficient resources to implement those tools at scales commensurate with the problem.…”