This story features Leah Mori, a soil conservation technician in Winnemucca, Nevada, who is combating the twin threats of wildfire and weeds.

New report pinpoints gaps in combatting invasive grasses and wildfires across vast sagebrush rangelands in the western U.S. 

A new resource released by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will help private and public land managers work collaboratively to get ahead of the curve and reduce risks from megafires using fuel breaks. Large-scale wildfires are one of the greatest threats to sage grouse and sagebrush ecosystems in the West.

Successful post-fire recovery hinges on the growth of perennial understory plants, especially perennial grasses that provide livestock forage and wildlife habitat. This fact sheet provides guidelines for maintaining productive sagebrush-steppe communities in grazed areas after fire.

This fact sheet provides a framework for using established fuel breaks for protecting sagebrush ecosystems that are prone to fire due to the invasion of nonnative annual grasses.

This fact sheet gives tools and strategies for reestablishing perennial-dominated plant communities in medusahead-invaded areas, which helps restore and protect vital sagebrush habitat.

Limiting the spread of invasive medusahead is critical, since this non-native plant decreases biodiversity, degrades wildlife habitat, reduces livestock forage, increases the risk of frequent wildfires, and changes how ecosystems function.