[APWG] NEWS: Invasive Plants Encourage Wildfires

[Olivia Kwong]

http://www.newswise.com/articles/invasive-plants-encourage-wildfires-with-negative-human-and-ecological-consequences

Invasive Plants Encourage Wildfires, with Negative Human and Ecological 
Consequences
Released: 9/15/2011 2:30 PM EDT
Source: Allen Press Publishing Services

Newswise -- The past decade has seen 77,951 fires burn about 6.7 million 
acres in the United States. One condition that facilitates the spread of 
wildfires is invasive plant species. Nonnative weeds can modify the 
vegetation of a landscape and provide a source of fuel that did not 
previously exist.

See the link above for the full article text.  Full text of the Fire and 
Invasive Plants Special Feature, "Economic and Social Impacts of Wildfires 
and Invasive Plants in American Deserts: Lessons From the Great Basin," 
Rangeland Ecology & Management, Vol. 64, No. 5, September 2011, is 
available at http://www.srmjournals.org/toc/rama/64/5