[APWG] BLM Great Basin massive seed sowings after huge fires

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Scott, Wayne and All,

Thanks for the details of the fires and rehab.

Could you please post your details to the APWG server, because others
working on exotic plants could see the scale of what is happening in the
Great Basin, which is pretty staggering.

So, has anyone looked at what spread the fire through the sagebrush?  Did
anyone look into that?  Was it the cheatgrass, or other sown exotics like
crested or Siberian wheatgrass?

It is my theory, that there was a wider spacing between the sage plants in
prior to the early 1800s, with perennial grasses in between the shrubs,
which slowed down or stopped the burns.

You can see the shrubs moving in when grasslands disappear in the SW, at
Dr. Humphrey's paired 1890s and 1980s photos at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/desertgrass.html

When the perennial grasses were grazed out, the shrub spacing got closer,
and then the flammable annual exotics got introduced underneath

My theory is based on a set of paired photos taken in the Great Basin
around Wells NEV. in 1868 and 1997 by Lawrence Hersh and the pic. from
1868 is on the cover of his book, The Central Pacific Railroad across
Nevada 1868 & 1997, Photographic Comparatives.

You can order this book online from the author, and he posts the pic. of
the cover.

You can clearly see that in the 1868 photo, the interspaces between the
shrubs are perennial grasses, probably Great Basin wild rye, and the
spacing between the shrubs is pretty wide, maybe 3-8 feet.  In the 1997
photo shows the grasses now extinct, with the shrubs filling in where the
grasses used to be, and are growing so that they touch each other.

It would be interesting for someone who could compare those two pictures
digitally, and get us a percentage cover of both the grasses and shrubs in
the 1868 photo along with the original shrub spacing, compared to the 1997
photo?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333