Fire Control
Welcome to Open Range, I’m Susan Allen. Stay tuned because after the break I’ll check in with our field reporter, Greg Martin for the AgriBeef Minute.
I’m Greg Martin with today’s AgriBeef Minute. How do you keep range fires in better control and yet help the land return quickly after. Tony Svejcar is with ARS Range and Meadow Forage Management Research Unit in Burns, Oregon.
SVEJCAR: We had done some burning in some areas that had been grazed and not been grazed since 1937 and what we saw was where there was a lot of accumulation of dead material in those bunch grasses where there had been no grazing, they died. And it converted over to cheatgrass which of course nobody is very happy about.
He says they feel the bunch grass is very important to keeping the cheat and Medusa Head out of the area.
SVEJCAR: So we’ve looked at a little bit on how much stuff do you have to accumulate, how much dead material before you start seeing a loss of those bunch grasses, where we can get a better handle on when we’d expect to see the bunch grasses die and when will they hold up to a fire.
They believe that grazing helps to remove the accumulation of dead material and not let a fire burn so hot as to kill the plants completely.
SVEJCAR: If we have these huge fires the agencies and the private landowners have to make a decision about where to seed - where to reseed and where not to. If we can do a better job of identifying where we’re going to have mortality of the bunch grasses it’s easier to concentrate efforts where you get the most bang for the buck.
I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.
Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m Susan Allen.
