Cheatgrass: Fire and Forage on the Range

List of Illustrations

figures 1.1. Civilian Conservation Corps fire crew fighting a wildfire 14 2.1. Typical fault block mountain range in the Great Basin 23 2.2. shadscale/Bailey greasewood plant community in the Carson Desert of western Nevada with interspaces between the shrubs covered with a black basalt pavement 27 2.3. Playa surface on the lake plain of a desiccated pluvial lake basin 28 2.4. Three plant communities occupying different elevations in the Pine Nut Mountains of western Nevada 29 3.1. The steins Mountains of southern oregon after being grazed by as many as 200,000 sheep during the summer of 1901 44 4.1. Cattle that grazed on 95 percent cheatgrass range from the time they left the winter feedlot in the spring until August 3, 1941 63 5.1. Halogeton on a roadside in northern Washoe County, Nevada 74 6.1. Tumble mustard in full bloom in a cheatgrass community 81 6.2. shield cress growing in the transition zone between salt desert and big sagebrush plant communities in the Great Basin 82 7.1. Germinating seed of big sagebrush 95 7.2. seeds of cheatgrass recovered from seedbeds in the field 97 7.3. Cheatgrass seeds accumulated in polygon cracks in a silttextured surface soil 100 8.1. Mature crested wheatgrass surrounded by space free of cheatgrass 106 8.2. stages of cheatgrass dominance in a big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass community 108 10.1. Rangeland plow working on large-scale experimental plots at Cain springs, Nevada 152 Illustrations ix 11.1 Track-laying tractor pulling three rangeland drills in a single hitch 169 12.1. ‘Hycrest’ crested wheatgrass 189 12.2. ‘Immigrant’ forage kochia 199 13.1. Nitrogen enrichment-immobilization experiments established on Lahontan sands at Flanigan, Nevada 216 14.1. Half-a-bite cheatgrass forage in the early spring 229 14.2. Forage wheel showing forage sources, availability, and utilization during a yearly cycle on a typical Great Basin range livestock operation 230 14.3. Crested wheatgrass on degraded big sagebrush ranges 231 14.4. Cheatgrass herbage production in a very good year 236 15.1. A formerly big sagebrush/bunchgrass community converted to perennial grass following a wildfire 248 15.2. An ocean of big sagebrush 249 15.3. Pronghorn antelope 250 15.4. Range seeded with crested wheatgrass and ‘Immigrant’ forage kochia 252 15.5. Mule browsing an older crested wheatgrass seeding in early spring 253 15.6. Photo taken in 2007 of a mountain brush community on the Charles sheldon National Antelope Refuge in northern Nevada that burned in 1994 and again in 1997 255 15.7. A mountain meadow being invaded by big sagebrush and western juniper 257 15.8. An old crested wheatgrass seeding that has been reinvaded by big sagebrush 259 15.9. Antelope bitterbrush seedling resulting from a rodent cache 260 15.10. Pinyon-juniper woodlands encroaching on rangeland 262 15.11. sage grouse in one of the last remaining big sagebrush islands in northwestern Nevada 262 15.12. Chukar partridge 264 16.1. Cheatgrass provides wildfire fuel 273 16.2. Big sagebrush community with virtually no herbaceous vegetation in the understory 278 x l i s t o f i l l u s t r a t i o n s 16.3. seedbed of cheatgrass-dominated community that burned in the 1999 firestorms that struck northern Nevada 284 tables 7.1 List of native and exotic annual species now found in sagebrush/bunchgrass plant communities 92 7.2 Mean germination of seeds of cheatgrass 103 9.1 World’s most successful noncultivated colonizing species 128 l i s t o f i l l u s t r a t i o n s xi ...