AoR 5: Kirk Davies, Invasive Annual Grass Management

Dr. Kirk Davies, lead range scientist at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center (EOARC) in Burns discusses with Tip invasive annual grass (IAG) on western rangelands and current research into promising new approaches to biological control of cheatgrass and ventenata. The conversation weaves in the role of fire in semi-arid shrub-steppe ecosystems, challenges in rehabilitating annual grass-infested rangeland, grazing as a biological control for cheatgrass, the pros and cons of sagebrush plants as refugia, and Dr. Davies' thoughts on how to promote perennial grasses simultaneous with grazing IAG. SURVEY Please take 60 seconds to complete this quick 5-question survey: wsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4GHpHVHlsouSorr TRANSCRIPT The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://www.dropbox.com/home/Art%20of%20Range%20transcripts RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The scientists at the EOARC are prolific publishers. This OSU/USDA research station makes their journal articles and research papers available to the public on their website. https://oregonstate.edu/dept/EOARC/publication and https://oregonstate.edu/dept/EOARC/resources-0 Journal article: An Alternative Management Paradigm for Plant Communities Affected by Invasive Annual Grass in the Intermountain West. May 2018 in Rangelands by Berry Perryman, Brad Schultz, Kent McAdoo, Sherman Swanson. Full text available at https://bit.ly/2LblZBl. Implications of Longer Term Rest from Grazing in the Sagebrush Steppe, journal article by Kirk Davies, Martin Vavra, Brad Schultz, and Neil Rimbey. They conclude from a wide literature review that "Not grazing can cause an accumulation of fine fuels that increase fire risk and severity and, subsequently, the probability of sagebrush steppe rangelands converting to exotic annual grasslands. One common theme they found was that shifts in plant communities (i.e., exotic annual grass invasion and western juniper encroachment), caused in part from historical improper grazing, cannot be reversed by long-term rest. This synthesis suggests that land managers should carefully consider if long-term rest will actually achieve their management goals and if a change in grazing management would achieve similar results." https://oregonstate.edu/dept/EOARC/sites/default/files/publication/798.pdf Adaptive Management for Invasive Annual Grasses: A Step-By-Step User's Guide for Implementing EBIPM, by Roger Sheley, Brenda Smith, Kimberly Reever-Morghan, and Tony Svejcar. 40pp. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sfc-dynamic-content/uploadfiles/152/Adaptive%20Management%20sm.pdf Grazing Invasive Annual Grasses: The Green & Brown Guide, by Brenda Smith, Roger Sheley, and Tony Svejcar. https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/55316/PDF Post-fire Grazing Management in the Great Basin, fact sheet for Sage Grouse Initiative. https://www.sagegrouseinitiative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/7_Post-fire_Grazing.pdf