Management of cheatgrass fuel loading in the shrub-steppe

Managing cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) has been and remains a difficult matter for land and fire managers in the Columbia Basin and elsewhere in the Intermountain West.  Experiments were conducted at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Columbia National Wildlife Refuge starting in 2002 to investigate the effect of herbicides, their concentrations, repeated herbicide application, fire, and seeding on fuel load and establishment of competitive bunchgrasses.  In addition, the relationship among community types (fuel loading) and the probability of a carrying fire was determined.