A green invader is taking over the country, and nothing seems to be able to stop it. Sound like science fiction? It’s happening right now in the American West. Researchers are racing to rid the area of a harmful, fast-growing vegetation.
Bromus tectorum, better known as cheatgrass, is native to Europe, northern Africa, and southwest Asia. But in the 1800s, cheatgrass arrived in North America. It came in contaminated seed and straw packing material. And it’s never left.
The non-native prairie invader got its name honestly: Cheatgrass sends out roots that cheat other plants of water in the spring.
In the summer, cheatgrass dries out quickly, making excellent tinder for wildfires. Cheatgrass fires kill rival plants and destroy wildlife habitat.
With other plants dead, cheatgrass gobbles up the landscape—making more fuel for bigger wildfires. Each year the cycle continues.
Scientists are working to find a soil bacteria to stop the spread of cheatgrass. Doing so may help control wildfires that have destroyed areas of Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, and Oregon.
Matt Germino is a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He’s running cheatgrass experiments at three sites in Idaho.
Meanwhile, Ann Kennedy, a Washington state soil microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has sorted through 25,000 strains of soil bacteria. She’s found a handful that can stop cheatgrass root growth.
The plan of both research projects is to use the bacteria—and maybe weed killer too—to eliminate non-native cheatgrass long enough so that native plants can fend off cheatgrass themselves.
But there’s another goal too: Researchers and environmentalists want to safeguard the greater sage grouse bird.
Ground-dwelling, chicken-sized sage grouse are found in 11 Western states. Only about 200,000–500,000 sage grouse remain, down from a peak of about 16 million.
Sage grouse depend on sagebrush for food. Females nest underneath sagebrush plants. Other tall native grasses help screen the hens and their eggs and chicks from predators. But as cheatgrass kills other plants off, sagebrush, prairie grass, and other plants don’t stand a chance—let alone the sage grouse.
Endangered bird or not, the U.S. Department of the Interior sees cheatgrass as one of the Western grassland’s toughest conservation problems. If scientists find the right combination of bacteria treatments, that could change.
Getting rid of cheatgrass won’t be easy. “It’s unlikely that any one technology will be the magic bullet,” Germino says.
No wonder, cheatgrass has over a century’s head start.
