Conservation Issues: Invasive weeds and Wildfire

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  1. Save the Sagebrush Sea.
  2. Unraveling Sagebrush Community Change to Manage for Resilient Sage Grouse Habitats.  Sage Grouse Initiative/ Intermountain West Joint Venture. 00:23:08 Excellent discussion & illustrations on succession, root morphology, & the impacts of invasive annual grasses in shrub-steppe plant communities. 
  3. Tackling Invasive Species & Wildfire in the Great Basin.  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service & U.S. Bureau of Land Management.  00:05:20.
  4. What About Cheatgrass? Resource Card Background Information, Pacific NW National Laboratory.
  5. Short introductory article by Susan Ballinger about shrub-steppe, We Can Help Keep Nature in Balance.
  6.   Cheatgrass in Sagebrush Country:  Fueling Severe Wildfires
  7. Conserve our Western Roots– A powerful graphic poster and postcards that illustrate the types of deep roots on native shrub-steppe shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses that show that rangelands are like upside down rainforests.

Visit the Conservation Issues-Weeds webpage, under Wildflowers & Grasses Topic to view:

  • Weed ID Photo Cards for 51 common weeds of Washington.  Washington Native Plant Society.
  • Invasive Weeds of Eastern Washington, WSU Extension Manual EM 005.  Illustrated Field Guide to 32 common weed species in Eastern Washington, search able by flower color, common name, and growth characteristics.
  • Attacking Annual Cheatgrass at its Roots; a short article about work in Eastern Washington to use a bacteria to inhibit cheatgrass root development.

    Washington State Websites with weed information include:

  •  Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board.  ‘Noxious weed’ is the traditional, legal term for any invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat.The term ‘noxious weeds’ includes non-native grasses, flowering plants, shrubs and trees. It also includes aquatic plants that invade wetlands, rivers, lakes and shorelines.About half of all invasive, noxious weeds are escapees from gardens; the rest are plants accidentally introduced to Washington through human travel and trade. Resources include Weed Identification guides.
  • Forb Seedling Identification Guide for the Inland Northwest Native, Introduced, Invasive and Noxious Species by Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington.  This guide was created to enable land managers to distinguish preferred seedlings from weed seedlings, and determine the success of a planting at an early stage. Species described in this guide are forbs planted in conservation plantings and common weeds in the Inland Northwest region.
  • Chelan County Noxious Weed Board. Information about identification, management, bio-control with services for landowners.
  • Chelan County Weed List