Barry Perryman, Professor, CABNR, University of Nevada, Reno. Contemporary management scenarios have given rise to cheatgrass proliferation in the Intermountain West. Targeted grazing management by domestic livestock offers one of the best and most efficient tools for managing very large public landscapes, private lands and the habitat of sensitive species that traditionally have lived in these areas.

3.  Presence of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) on
perennial grass ranges
 Use of perennial grass grazing systems on
ranges where cheatgrass is already
entrenched
 Grazing reductions since the early 1980s
 More fire, frequency and extent

4. 0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
acresburned
#offires
year
fires acres
National Interagency Fire Center data

5. 1900 20001950
35
25
15
05
MillionsofAUM’s
Trends in Grazing on
Federal Grazing Lands
------------Year--------------

6. 1900 20001950
------------Year--------------
Longer, hotter, drier summers

7.  Surgery applied at the wrong time, in the
wrong place, with the wrong intensity, and
the wrong duration becomes a bad thing.
 Grazing applied at the correct time, intensity,
and duration can be an amazing tool to
mitigate ecological challenges.

8. CHEATGRASS
RANGELAND

9. CHEATGRASS
RANGELAND

16. Grazing
 Grazing Affects Fire Behavior
 Perimeter or Extent
 Patchiness
 Intensity
 Flame Length
 Rate of Spread
Fire/Fuel

17. Fire
Modeling Simulated grazing effects on
fire behavior while
incrementally reducing
herbaceous fuel loading and
holding other fuel and
environmental factors constant.
Launchbaugh et al. 2008
Grazing Can Affect Fire Behavior

18. Sagebrush Steppe(GS1)
10% Dead Fuel Moisture
>15
10
15
5
0
Midflame Wind Speed (upslope)
miles/hour
>15
10
15
5
0
Fire Behavior
Direct control of fire difficult
when fireline intensity >100
BTUs or flame length > 4 ft.

19. 12% Dead Fuel Moisture
10
>10
5
0
Midflame Wind Speed (upslope)
miles/hour
10
>10
5
0
Sagebrush Steppe(GS1)
Fire Behavior

20. Grazing Affects Fuel Loads
 Accumulation of
biomass & litter
 Distribution of litter
around perennial
grass crowns
Ungrazed
Grazed
Photos: Kirk Davies

21. Grazing affects Fuel Loads
Mike Pellant

22. Grazing & Fuels
What does science tell us?
2) Grazing can reduce fuels
3) Grazing will not stop fires under very hot & dry
conditions.
4) Grazing can reduce cheatgrass & grazing
can increase cheatgrass
5) Grazing can reduce fire intensity &
change fire behavior… more research
needed.
1) Grazing can change plant & fuel composition long term

24. Exclosures
Water
Lick Tanks
TS Ranch – Dunphy, NV
• Mack Farm Pasture
• ~ 6000 acres
 60 % “go back”
farmland
 40 % greasewood/
cheatgrass
• 800 cows
• Oct. 8 to Nov. 15
(38 days)
N0.5 miles

27. Current research is indicating that in
areas where cheatgrass is already
entrenched, the amount of carryover
aboveground biomass will dictate the
dominance of cheatgrass.
Trowbridge, W., Albright, T., Ferguson, S., Li, J., Perryman, B. L., Nowak, R. S. 2013.
Explaining patterns of species dominance in the shrub steppe systems of the Junggar
Basin (China) and Great Basin (USA). Journal of Arid Lands, 5:415-427. doi:
10.1007/s40333-013-0174-y jal.xjegi.com; www.springer.com/40333
Schmelzer, L., B. Perryman, B. Bruce, B. Schultz, K. McAdoo, G. McCuin, S. Swanson,
J. Wilker, and K. Conley. 2014. Case Study: Reducing cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum
L.) fuel loads using fall cattle grazing. Professional Animal Scientist, 30:270-278.

34. Questions?