Fuels & Fuel Treatments
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We examined the effect of livestock grazing and previous wildfire events on fuel load in southeastern Idaho as part of a wildfire risk-livestock interaction study. Fuel load was estimated using ordinal fuel load classes at 128 sample sites stratified by current livestock grazing and documented wildfire occurrence (1939-2000). Fifty-nine percent of previous wildfire sites had a documented fire within the past 2 years. Livestock grazing was the most effective means to reduce fuel load compared to recent wildfire and livestock grazing with previous wildfire. Livestock grazing provides a viable management tool for fuel load reduction prescriptions that avoids the negative effect of extreme fire intensity where fuel load is high.
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Fire risk in western North America has increased with increasing cover of cheatgrass, an invasive alien annual grass. The relationship between cheatgrass cover and fire risk was determined in a historically burned shrub-steppe community where cheatgrass cover ranged from 5 to 75%. Fire risk ranged from about 46% with an average of 12% cheatgrass cover to 100% when cheatgrass cover was greater than 45% based on prediction confidence limits. Reflectance of the green and red bands of aerial photographs, were related to senescent cheatgrass cover to create fine resolution cheatgrass cover and fire risk maps. This assessment technique will allow land managers to prioritize lands for restoration to reduce fire risk in the shrub-steppe.
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Much of the Murphy Wildland Fire Complex burned under extreme fuel and weather conditions that likely overshadowed livestock grazing as a factor influencing fire extent and fuel consumption in many areas where these fires burned. Differences and abrupt contrast lines in the level of fuels consumed were affected mostly by the plant communities that existed on a site before fire. A few abrupt contrasts in burn severity coincided with apparent differences in grazing patterns of livestock, observed as fence-line contrasts. Fire modeling revealed that grazing in grassland vegetation can reduce surface rate of spread and fire-line intensity to a greater extent than in shrubland types. Under extreme fire conditions (low fuel moisture, high temperatures, and gusty winds), grazing applied at moderate utilization levels has limited or negligible effects on fire behavior. However, when weather and fuel-moisture conditions are less extreme, grazing may reduce the rate of spread and intensity of fires allowing for patchy burns with low levels of fuel consumption.
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Targeted livestock grazing must be carefully implemented and monitored to meet fuels management objectives on an annual and long-term basis. Grazing to reduce fuels on a landscape must be both strategic and surgical. Surgical means that targeted livestock grazing will be done to the level and limited to the minimum area needed to meet fuel and landscape or project management objectives within BLM’s regulatory framework. Therefore, sound project planning is essential.
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Several wildfire prevention programs in southern Europe are currently using livestock grazing for the maintenance of fuelbreaks. This silvopastoral management is valued for being sustainable and effective in reducing fuel loads, but few studies have analyzed other impacts linked to fuelbreak grazing. This paper reports on an experiment performed within the wildfire prevention program in Andalusia (southern Spain) with the aim of clarifying and quantifying the effect of fuelbreak grazing on herbage biomass, ground cover, herbage species composition, and growth of holm oak saplings.
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The experience Squaw Valley Ranch has had with fire, livestock grazing, and sage grouse centers on management strategy and flexibility. Squaw Valley Ranch and the BLM Elko District have a monitoring program that allows for year-to-year adaptations of the grazing plan, as well as long-term
planning for goals and assessment of goal achievement.
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Herbivory and fire are natural interacting forces contributing to the maintenance of rangeland ecosystems. Wildfires in the sagebrush dominated ecosystems of the Great Basin are becoming larger and more frequent, and may dramatically alter plant communities and habitat. This synthesis describes what is currently known about the cumulative impacts of historic livestock grazing patterns and short-term effects of livestock grazing on fuels and fire in sagebrush ecosystems. Over years and decades grazing can alter fuel characteristics of ecosystems. On a yearly basis, grazing can reduce
the amount and alter the continuity of fine fuels, potentially changing wildlife fire spread and intensity. However, how grazing-induced fuel alterations affect wildland fire depends on weather conditions and plant community characteristics. As weather conditions become extreme, the influence of grazing on fire behavior is limited, especially in communities dominated by woody plants.
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Cattle grazed a cheatgrass-dominated pasture during the fall dormant period for four years (2006-2009) and were provided a protein nutrient supplement to improve their distribution, uptake of dry feed and production performance. Cheatgrass standing crop was reduced by 43 percent to 80 percent each year, and cattle weight and body condition score increased each year. The fall-grazed site had less cover from cheatgrass than the ungrazed site had. The fall-grazed site also had no decline in perennial grass cover. Cheatgrass density was 64 percent less on the grazed site after two years, and had 19 fewer plants per square foot than the adjacent ungrazed area. The seedbank potential for cheatgrass decreased much more on grazed areas than on the adjacent ungrazed areas, with a 95 percent or greater reduction in the seedbank potential. The difference was due to the grazing treatment.
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This fact sheet provides a framework for the placement, use, and effectiveness of established fuel breaks for protecting sagebrush ecosystems.
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View fact sheet, pg. 16.
This fact sheet provides land managers with a brief summary of the effects of conifer expansion and infill in sagebrush ecosystems and of potential management strategies.
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