And dry cheatgrass is perfect tinder. When lightning ignites it, the fire races across the landscape, often killing the sagebrush and native perennials. In August 1999, for instance, firestorms in northern Nevada burned 1 million acres, most of which were sagebrush shrublands. The huge wildfires of 2000 were mostly forest fires, but they did torch hundreds of thousands of acres of sagebrush in Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and seven other states. Although the details are sketchy, some conservationists are already skeptical, noting that while the plan talks about the importance of native wildlife, including sage grouse, it emphasizes planting nonnative grasses, in part to improve forage for livestock.
Biologists disagree on whether sage grouse can coexist with domestic grazers.
But research shows that cattle tend to eat precisely the grasses and wildflowers that provide the grouse with both insects to feed upon and cover from predators. Cattle also trample nests and chicks. Many conservationists view the petitions to list sage grouse as a way to force changes in the management of sagelands, since federal and state lands provide the majority of grazing land for livestock operations in sagebrush country. But as sage grouse numbers have declined, working groups of biologists, ranchers, grouse hunters, and others have formed all across sagebrush country in an effort to keep sage grouse management in local, not federal, hands. Some experts think that listing will tangle the cooperative effort needed to restore sagelands and sage grouse in a thicket of lawsuits and regulations.