[APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction Re: NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass

[Wayne Tyson]

While all that stuff is true, it is nothing new, but the elephant in the 
room is embodied in the term "range." Like motherhood, the romantic ideal of 
cowboys and cattle is a subject to be avoided. That's where the problem came 
from, and that's core variable that ensures that it will persist. Cheatgrass 
will never be gone, but until the cattle are gone, it will remain a major 
component of what's left of the ecosystem that evolved under a different 
kind of grazing/browsing pressure than cattle provide. The simple 
inconvenient truth is that ecosystems are a product of everything that is 
going on, and cattle are the primary cultivators of cheatgrass and the other 
components of the altered ecosystem that is the Intermountain West.

WT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Olivia Kwong" <plant at plantconservation.org>
To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 6:36 AM
Subject: [APWG] NEWS: In fire country,land managers struggle to fight 
cheatgrass


> http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/03/2048524/in-fire-country-land-managers.html
>
> In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
> By PATRICK ORR
> McClatchy Newspapers
>
> BOISE, Idaho -- Cheatgrass can be a dirty word for land managers in the
> West.
>
> Sure, they marvel at the invasive species' toughness and respect its
> stubborn ability to muscle out native bunch grasses of the desert of
> southwest Idaho and other areas of the West. But cheatgrass is also the
> main reason why much of the arid lands of the West are so susceptible to
> unnaturally devastating range fires.
>
> See the link above for the full article text.
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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> opinion of the individual posting the message.


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