Up in Smoke: New Video on Invasive Grasses and Fire

Post by Jolie Pollet, Division Chief for Forest, Range and Vegetation Resources (Acting), Bureau of Land Management

Fire in rangelands can have devastating effects on habitat, people, the nation’s economy, and wildlife. Today, wildfire in sagebrush country is occurring much more frequently than it did historically due to invasive plants, changing weather patterns, and human activities. When a fire occurs in the sage, extensive resources are needed to help native species come back before invasive species establish and dominate the site. Fire in this landscape creates substantial challenges related to mitigation, post-fire rehabilitation, seed and other material availability, policy priorities, social conflicts, and human capacity. When these can’t be overcome, entire landscapes can be lost to invasive species, like cheatgrass. Specific high-level strategies are required to address this daunting conservation challenge.

The BLM is working to address this challenge with its partners, which is why the BLM and Intermountain West Joint Venture created a five-minute film titled Up in Smoke: Fire and Invasives on Western Rangelands. This introduces the conservation challenge of invasive annual grasses in sagebrush habitats and the rangeland fire cycle created by them. The video calls attention to this issue by highlighting key statistics about the scale and gravity of the fire and invasives cycle.

The video concludes with four calls-to-action so the public can learn more about what they can do to combat this ever-increasing challenge.

1. Increase Resources for Rangeland Fire and Invasives Management

2. Protect Healthy Rangelands

3. Support Collaborative Conservation

4. Prevent the Spread of Invasives in Your Backyard

Not everyone can do all four of these actions, but each of us has the ability to engage in one or two of these efforts in some way. If we can draw any form of attention and resources to this dire issue of invasive annual grasses impacting the sagebrush sea and the people who work there, we will be better than we were yesterday. Thank you for your interest in this new tool, please consider sharing this with your colleagues and friends.

This video covers the importance of rangelands and the critical need to conserve our sagebrush ecosystems.