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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:

Fire regimes in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems have been greatly altered across the western United States. Broad-scale invasion of non-native annual grasses, climate change, and human activities have accelerated wildfire cycles, increased…
Author(s): Michele R. Crist, Rick Belger, Kirk W. Davies, Dawn Davis, James R. Meldrum, Douglas J. Shinneman, Thomas E. Remington, Justin L. Welty, Kenneth E. Mayer
Year Published:

The historical role of fire in sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) landscapes remains poorly understood, yet is important to inform management and conservation of obligate species such as the threatened Gunnison Sage-grouse (GUSG; Centrocercus minimus…
Author(s): Petar Z. Simic, Jonathan D. Coop, Ellis Q. Margolis, Jessica R. Young, Manuel K. Lopez
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:

Western juniper was often historically restricted to fire refugia such as rocky outcrops but has since Euro-American settlement expanded into areas previously dominated by sagebrush steppe. Wildfires in developed woodlands have been rare. In 2007,…
Author(s): Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting
Year Published:

Increased wildfire frequency and associated replacement of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) with invasive annual grasses contribute to declines of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) populations across the Great Basin.…
Author(s): Ian F. Dudley, Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Dawn Davis, Scott C. Gardner, David J. Delehanty
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:

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:

Invasions of native plant communities by non-native species present major challenges for ecosystem management and conservation. Invasive annual grasses such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata are pervasive and continue to expand their…
Author(s): Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
Year Published:

Altered climate, including weather extremes, can cause major shifts in vegetative recovery after disturbances. Predictive models that can identify the separate and combined temporal effects of disturbance and weather on plant communities and that…
Author(s): Cara Applestein, T. Trevor Caughlin, Matthew J. Germino
Year Published:

Regeneration is an essential demographic step that affects plant population persistence, recovery after disturbances, and potential migration to track suitable climate conditions. Challenges of restoring big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) after…
Author(s): Daniel Schlaepfer, John Bradford, William Lauenroth, Robert K. Shriver
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:

Perennial grasses are often seeded after disturbances to provide ecosystem services and prevent invasive plant dominance. However, there is widespread disagreement over the use of native compared to introduced grasses. In Wyoming big sagebrush (…
Author(s): Kirk W. Davies, Chad S. Boyd
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:

Wildfire size and frequency have increased in the western United States since the 1950s, but it is unclear how seeding treatments have altered fire regimes in arid steppe systems. We analyzed how the number of fires since 1955 and the fire return…
Author(s): Chris Bowman-Prideaux, Beth A. Newingham, Eva K. Strand
Year Published:

Wildfire is increasing in frequency and size in the western United States with climate change and invasive species such as cheatgrass. This increase is also causing an increase in the need for restoration techniques, especially in low-elevation,…
Author(s): Madeline N. Grant-Hoffman, Heidi L. Plank
Year Published:

Questions: Invasive‐plant treatments often target a single or few species, but many landscapes are diversely invaded. Exotic annual grasses (EAGs) increase wildfires and degrade native perennial plant communities in cold‐desert rangelands, and…
Author(s): Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew J. Germino
Year Published:

Grazing and fire are both independently important drivers of plant community dynamics; however, their interactive effects may be even more influential. Little is known about prefire grazing effects on postfire plant community dynamics. We…
Author(s): Kirk W. Davies, Jonathan D. Bates, Chad S. Boyd, Rory O'Connor, Stella M. Copeland
Year Published:

Woody plant expansions are altering ecosystem structure and function, as well as fire regimes, around the globe. Tree‐reduction treatments are widely implemented in expanding woodlands to reduce fuel loads, increase ecological resilience, and…
Author(s): Stephanie M. Freund, Beth A. Newingham, Jeanne C. Chambers, Alexandra K. Urza, Bruce A. Roundy, J. Hall Cushman
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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
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