The burning steppe: In sageland fires, cheatgrass is both culprit and beneficiary

Neal Hedges suspects his beloved sagebrush is all dead. Now, surveying the Sleepy Hollow Fire site, it’s time to worry about what might replace it.

“It has to come back by seed,” Hedges says of the big sagebrush that dotted the hills above Broadview. “If there are a few survivors out there, it could resprout itself. Otherwise, it’ll have to be seeded.”

Even if the habitat-crucial sagebrush does rejuvenate, its fiercest competitor — cheatgrass — is likely to come back with far greater force, and provide even more fuel for future wildfires.

Read the entire article at the Wenatchee World.