As a result, cheatgrass now dominates many areas, and plant and animal species have been lost. First, a pure stand of bunchgrass has a lot of space between individual plants. Alternating plants and space creates good foraging, hiding, and nesting habitat for insects, birds, and small mammals. Such birds as vesper and grasshopper sparrows build nests under the overhanging edges of larger bunches, and ground-dwelling birds like sage grouse can hide from predators among the bunches. Bunchgrasses also are a more reliable, higher quality food for wildlife and domestic animals than cheatgrass.
Science is constructed of facts as a house is of stones.
But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Henri Poincare Washington is lucky to have several areas with relatively extensive shrub-steppe dominated by native bunchgrass. The ALE Reserve contains over 40,000 contiguous acres of high-quality bunchgrass. Take a trip. Visit the Rattlesnake Slope Wildlife Area along the Yakima River between Benton City and Richland.