News From the Field
Tracking Invasive Cheatgrass Role in Larger, More Frequent Western Fires

December 5, 2012

Bethany Bradley, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Jennifer Balch of Penn State University and colleagues say that over the past 10 years, cheatgrass fueled most of the larger fires, influencing 39 of the largest 50. Also, fires in grass-covered lands were on average, significantly larger than the average fire size on lands dominated by other types of vegetation such as pinyon-juniper, montane shrubland and cultivated areas. Full Story

Source
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

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