Long-term cheatgrass reduction with indaziflam in sagebrush

View brief.

Indaziflam (Rejuvra®, Bayer) is a pre-emergent herbicide that can manage annual grass seed banks and provide long-term reductions with minimal harm to established perennial vegetation. Indaziflam provided significant, long-term reductions in cheatgrass cover and density in invaded sagebrush-grasslands in western Wyoming without negative effects on native vegetation species richness. Observations from the site after an unplanned wildfire suggest that treatment three years earlier may have prevented the fire from burning significant areas of two large aerial treatment plots, likely by reducing the amount and continuity of fine fuel. These results suggest that indaziflam may help managers mitigate the impacts of invasion and proactively protect intact shrublands from cheatgrass-altered fire regimes.