The Long Run · Episode 4 of 7 · 22 min
Cheatgrass and the New Fire: How Grazing Rewired the West's Wildfires
Weeds that arrive with the herd cure early, carpet the ground, and shortened the West's fire cycle from roughly a century to a few years. The episode traces cheatgrass, the grass-fire cycle and the billion-dollar suppression bill, against nearly 60 million acres of BLM land failing its own land-health standards.
Where it happens
- Great Basin+1 more episodeRegion where overstocked range gave way to cheatgrass
- Intermountain WestWhere cheatgrass became the keystone invader
Timeline
- Late 1800sCheatgrass arrives in contaminated crop seed, straw and packing
- 1934Taylor Grazing Act begins regulating the overgrazed public domain
- 1992D'Antonio and Vitousek publish the grass-fire cycle concept
- 2017Federal wildfire suppression costs first reach about $3.0 billion in a year
- 2019PNAS study finds invasive grasses roughly double fire occurrence
- May 2024Report finds nearly 60 million acres of BLM land failing land-health standards
Still debated
Historic fire-return intervals vary by source and site, and the share of any fire attributable to grazing versus drought and climate is contested. A 2024 study found little viable cheatgrass seed survives the cattle gut, and targeted grazing's landscape-scale efficacy is unsettled.