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Background: Sagebrush ecosystems are experiencing increases in wildfire extent and severity. Most research on vegetation treatments that reduce fuels and fire risk has been short term (2–3 years) and focused on ecological responses. We review causes…
Author(s): Jeanne C. Chambers, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Michele R. Crist, Richard F. Miller, Matthew C. Reeves, Karen C. Short, Claire Williams
Year Published:

Background Wildfire is a major proximate cause of historical and ongoing losses of intact big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) plant communities and declines in sagebrush obligate wildlife species. In recent decades, fire return intervals have…
Author(s): Martin C. Holdrege, Daniel Schlaepfer, Kyle Palmquist, Michele R. Crist, Kevin E. Doherty, William Lauenroth, Thomas E. Remington, Karin Riley, Karen C. Short, John C. Tull, Lief A. Wiechman, John B. Bradford
Year Published:

Background Sagebrush shrublands in the Great Basin, USA, are experiencing widespread increases in wildfire size and area burned resulting in new policies and funding to implement fuel treatments. However, we lack the spatial data needed to optimize…
Author(s): Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, Matthew C. Reeves, Eva K. Strand, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Claire Tortorelli, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen C. Short
Year Published:

Prescribed fall burning is commonly used worldwide on rangeland sites to enhance vegetation resources and restore disturbed ecosystems, but little is known about how it may alter microbial communities and insect activities. We used two site…
Author(s): Deborah S. Page-Dumroese, Stephen Cook, Bradford M. Kard, Martin F. Jurgensen, Chris A. Miller, Joanne M. Tirocke
Year Published:

Background Native pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) trees are expanding into shrubland communities across the Western United States. These trees often outcompete with native sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) associated species, resulting in…
Author(s): Claire Williams, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Eva K. Strand, Matthew C. Reeves, Scott E. Shaff, Karen C. Short, Jeanne C. Chambers, Beth A. Newingham, Claire Tortorelli
Year Published:

Sagebrush ecosystems in the United States have been declining since EuroAmerican settlement, largely due to agricultural and urban development, invasive species, and altered fire regimes, resulting in loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat. To…
Author(s): Douglas J. Shinneman, Eva K. Strand, Michael L. Pellant, John T. Abatzoglou, Mark W. Brunson, Nancy F. Glenn, Julie A. Heinrichs, Mojtaba Sadegh, Nicole M. Vaillant
Year Published:

Fire and grazing play an important role in managed rangeland ecosystems. These disturbances interact to shape plant communities and outcomes for rangeland biodiversity and livestock production. However, managers have a limited toolbox to reach…
Author(s): Hailey Wilmer, Devan A. McGranahan, Corey A. Moffet, J. Bret Taylor
Year Published:

For decades, large portions of the semi-arid sagebrush ecosystem have been experiencing increased frequency and extent of wildfire, even though small, infrequent fire is a natural disturbance in this ecosystem (Baker, 2006). Increased wildfire is…
Author(s): Lea A. Condon, Douglas J. Shinneman, Roger Rosentreter, Peter Coates
Year Published:

Sagebrush ecosystems in the United States have been declining since EuroAmerican settlement, largely due to agricultural and urban development, invasive species, and altered fire regimes, resulting in loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat. To…
Author(s): Douglas J. Shinneman, Eva K. Strand, Michael L. Pellant, John T. Abatzoglou, Mark W. Brunson, Nancy F. Glenn, Julie A. Heinrichs, Mojtaba Sadegh, Nicole M. Vaillant
Year Published:

Fire refugia and patchiness are important to the persistence of fire-sensitive species and may facilitate biodiversity conservation in fire-dependent landscapes. Playing the role of ecosystem engineers, large herbivores alter vegetation structure…
Author(s): Megan J. Dornbusch, Ryan Limb, Ilana V. Bloom-Cornelius, R. Dwayne Elmore, John R. Weir, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf
Year Published:

Sagebrush ecosystems of western North America are threatened by invasive annual grasses and wildfires that can remove fire-intolerant shrubs for decades. Fuel reduction treatments are used ostensibly to aid in fire suppression, conserve wildlife…
Author(s): David A. Pyke, Scott E. Shaff, Jeanne C. Chambers, Eugene Schupp, Beth A. Newingham, Margaret L. Gray, Lisa M. Ellsworth
Year Published:

Key to the long-term resilience of dryland ecosystems is the recovery of foundation plant species following disturbance. In ecosystems with high interannual weather variability, understanding the influence of short-term environmental conditions on…
Author(s): Alexandra K. Urza, Peter J. Weisberg, David Board, Jeanne C. Chambers, Stanley G. Kitchen, Bruce A. Roundy
Year Published:

Fire and fuel management is a high priority in North American sagebrush ecosystems where the expansion of piñon and juniper trees and the invasion of nonnative annual grasses are altering fire regimes and resulting in loss of sagebrush species and…
Author(s): Jeanne C. Chambers, Alexandra K. Urza, David Board, Richard F. Miller, David A. Pyke, Bruce A. Roundy, Eugene Schupp, Robin J. Tausch
Year Published:

Non‐native, invasive Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) is pervasive in sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin ecoregion of the western United States, competing with native plants and promoting more frequent fires. As a result, cheatgrass invasion likely…
Author(s): R. Chelsea Nagy, Emily J. Fusco, Jennifer Balch, John T. Finn, Adam L. Mahood, Jenica M. Allen, Bethany A. Bradley
Year Published:

Questions: Relative to a landscape with a mosaic of two sagebrush community types and increasing fire frequency, we asked: 1) Do vegetation characteristics vary significantly with number of times burned for each sagebrush community? 2) How do…
Author(s): Douglas J. Shinneman, Susan K. McIlroy, Marie-Anne de Graaff
Year Published:

Fire frequency has decreased in many shrub-steppe communities. Re-introducing fire may be needed to increase spatial and temporal variability in vegetation, but is often hindered by concerns of undesired vegetation shifts. These concerns arise, in…
Author(s): Kirk W. Davies, Jonathan D. Bates
Year Published:

We assessed plant community succession following prescribed fire on ungrazed Wyoming big sagebrush steppe, eastern Oregon. Treatments were burned (Burn; September and October, 2002) and unburned (Control) sagebrush steppe. Herbaceous yield,…
Author(s): Jonathan D. Bates, Chad S. Boyd, Kirk W. Davies
Year Published:

Restoration of non-sprouting shrubs after wildfire is increasingly becoming a management priority. In the western U.S., Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young) restoration is a high priority, but…
Author(s): Kirk W. Davies, Jonathan D. Bates, Chad S. Boyd
Year Published:

Fuel breaks are increasingly being implemented at broad scales (100s to 10,000s of square kilometers) in fire‐prone landscapes globally, yet there is little scientific information available regarding their ecological effects (eg habitat…
Author(s): Douglas J. Shinneman, Matthew J. Germino, David S. Pilliod, Cameron L. Aldridge, Nicole M. Vaillant, Peter S. Coates
Year Published:

The principal aim of this project was to project changes in fuels, fire dynamics, and associated responses of vegetation and breeding birds that might inform selection and prioritization of management actions in the Great Basin. Our original six…
Author(s): Erica Fleishman, Jennifer Balch, Bethany A. Bradley, Ned Horning, Matthias Leu
Year Published: