After the 1984 Clearspot fire in southwestern Utah, sand dunes formed in the naked soil, and dust storms reached Salt Lake City. For each inch of soil lost, replenishment would take thousands of years.

Reseeding with native plants proved futile. The wind blew the seedlings away, leaving a void for the opportunistic cheatgrass from Eurasia. Once it moves in and takes over, the range is even more susceptible to burning.

Utah State University and USDA researchers on campus have learned a lot in the intervening years. For the past 20 years they have been planting and studying a variety of test plots on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

In July, their 30-acre plot near the site of the Clearspot fire was put to the test. After the worst range fire in Utah history was over, the forage kochia, crested wheatgrass and Russian wildrye that was planted in the late 1980s to stabilize the soil after the 1984 fire was the only patch of green in a scorched landscape.

Years of drought, low snowpack, record-breaking heat, and cheatgrass invasions have turned the Great Basin into a tinderbox. All it takes is one lightning strike or a single spark from an illegal campfire. This summer, 7 million acres burned in the West. The Milford Flat fire that left USU’s 30-acre plot untouched blackened 350,000 acres in Beaver and Millard counties.

If replanted with fire-resistant and fast-growing species before winter sets in, precious soil will be preserved in a parched region that can afford to lose none, and forage for wildlife and livestock will return.

A Eurasian invader like the ubiquitous cheatgrass, forage kochia has none of its menacing characteristics. USU plant geneticist Blair Waldron, who has done extensive research on the plant and made several trips to Eurasia to gather specimens and seed, says it can stop the spread of cheatgrass, allowing bunchgrasses and other more beneficial plants to gain a roothold and outcompete. After the smoke settled from the Milford Flat fire, Waldron and his colleagues were pleased to see that their forage can also stop an inferno in its path.

USU Extension specialist Robert Newhall will never forget the sight of their little oasis surrounded by charred soil. He spotted dragonflies, sparrows, lizards and jackrabbits. All the animals still in the area had congregated on the only habitat left in 567 square miles.
—Lynnette Harris ’88