12/17/2023 0 Comments The golden hoof farmWhile the use of herbicides has become increasingly disparaged by the public in light of several studies reporting significant health and environmental concerns, Therese Glowacki, the resource management manager for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, said those effects can be mitigated with new herbicides and careful application. It also has an effect on the biodiversity of the areas. Forest Service Fire Effects Information System reports. “Cheatgrass expansion has dramatically changed fire regimes and plant communities over vast areas of western rangelands by creating an environment where fires are easily ignited, spread rapidly, cover large areas, and occur frequently,” the U.S. As those industries dwindled, cheatgrass thrived and created a significant wildfire threat, increasing fire danger by 29%, according to Chelsea Nagy, a terrestrial ecologist at The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, who co-authored the study. In Boulder County, the main offender is cheatgrass, which was likely introduced to the area alongside agriculture and ranching, according to the U.S. “Climate change more than doubles the likelihood of fire, human ignitions triple the fire season, and now we can add invasive species fueling fires.” “This work shows that invasive species are one of the big three ways that people are changing fire regimes,” said senior author Bethany Bradley, a terrestrial ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Invasive grasses have changed the landscape of America’s open spaces, out-competing native species in areas across the country.Īs a result, according to a new study from The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, these aggressive plants have increased the likelihood of wildfire by anywhere from 27% to 230%.
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