Sagebrush in Prisons
By Frani Halperin
Editor’s Note
Tens of thousands of invasive species—from cheatgrass, blights, and tamarisk to hogs, fire ants, and boa constrictors—damage natural ecosystems, agricultural systems, human-built infrastructure, and even public health throughout the United States, costing billions of dollars each year.
Nonnatives, Invasives, Weeds
Plants as stories of human meddling
The Wyoming census for the plant kingdom is out! Over 2,900 different kinds of vascular plants grow in the wild in Wyoming according to experts at UW’s Rocky Mountain Herbarium. They include more than 2,500 native species along with 372 nonnative ones as of 2018.
Cheatgrass on Fire
The race to save an ecosystem
Locals speculate that Nevada’s largest fire may have started with a Fourth of July firework launched in a canyon. But no one really knows. The 2018 Martin Fire seemed small and innocuous, until a weather cell moved into northern Nevada.
When Natives Persist
One researcher examines how native plants can compete with invasives
In the spring of 2019 Elizabeth Leger drove out from her botany lab at the University of Nevada, Reno to her field site on the western edge of the 435,000 acres burned in the Martin Fire.
Looking Underground
Tiny soil organisms may hold the key to managing invasive plants
The four members of Gordon Custer’s research group gather around as he walks through the steps of data collection.
Herbicides in Wildlands
What do we really know about their effects?
As Cara Nelson, a researcher and professor of ecosystem science and restoration at the University of Montana, hiked around Missoula’s foothills, she noticed abundant knapweed and cheatgrass growing amidst native bunchgrasses and wildflowers.
Early Detection and Rapid Response
Can a highly coordinated team of experts and weed managers stop a new invasive species?
For many westerners, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is the exemplar invasive weed, well known for thriving in sagebrush landscapes where it crowds out native plants, fuels a devastating fire regime, and threatens wildlife and livestock grazing.
Fighting Phragmites
Systematic landscape planning software improves the odds against a despised invasive reed
It’s a hot, sunny day in early April, and I’m out collecting GPS coordinates for stands of wetland vegetation in the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
The Toadflax Needle in the Wilderness Haystack
Using technology to detect and map new invasive species arrivals
The Noxious Weed
Since dalmatian toadflax was introduced in Wyoming, it has checked off all the boxes of an invasive species—it outcompetes native vegetation, reduces biodiversity, and is not palatable for wildlife or livestock.
Released to the Wild
Unwanted pets take a toll on ecosystems
Stepping through the tall grass, a family made their way to the edge of Kelly Warm Spring, a geothermal spring with a temperature that hovers around 77 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, in Grand Teton National Park.
Colonel Mustard, by the Dock, with the Bucket
A fish detective, the effort to stop illegal invasive species introductions, and a long history of a fish management culture clash
One summer day in 1992, two teenage boys fishing Lake Mary Ronan watched a man dump a cooler
The Four-Footed Watercraft Inspector
Can specially trained dogs keep invasive mussels out of western waterways?
A mile outside of Browning, Montana, a watercraft inspector sits on the side of the highway next to her kennel.
Cancer to the Rescue?
A potential solution to invasive mussels
One hundred thousand quagga mussels can live in a single square meter, and 450 trillion of them infest Lake Michigan alone.
Unsung Pollinators
Native bees are forgotten in the clamor to save exotic pollinators
Christy Bell rifled through a series of shallow drawers lining the walls of a dark, windowless lab.
To Kill or Not to Kill?
Managing charismatic ungulates in the Tetons
The first time Michael Whitfield saw bighorn sheep in the high country he stood on a ridgeline in the shadow of the Teton Range and watched a group grazing along a plateau.
Bye Bye, Baseline, Goodbye
Rethinking our goals for ecosystem conservation
Natural resource managers strive to keep ecosystems functioning on their own.
Time to Revisit our Invasive Species Strategy
Perspective from Governor Mark Gordon
Invasive species are not a new phenomenon, but over the past few decades the West has seen an explosion of all types in all ecosystems.
Editor’s Note
Here in the West, we ask a lot of our public lands. As the photo collage on the cover illustrates, we pile demands onto the federal and state lands that surround our communities.
Federal lands in public hands
The long history of Congressional intent to keep public lands public
Bob Keiter is the Wallace Stegner Professor of Law, University Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land, Resources, and the Environment