In the north of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, songbirds sing at sunrise over sagebrush dotted with yellow balsamroot, red paintbrush and purple lupine — a healthy sagebrush ecosystem. In Lava Beds National Monument, after a devastating wildfire, only ash and dirt remain; the wildflowers are gone, and cheatgrass, an invasive annual grass, has moved in where the sagebrush grew. Other parks that have lost sagebrush to fire look the same.
Intact sagebrush steppe beside autumn aspen groves in Great Basin National Park. Credit: National Park Service.
NPS staff inspecting wildfire damage in Lava Beds National Monument. Credit: National Park Service.
A biome under threat
Sagebrush (Artemisia species) is far from the only plant in the sagebrush biome, a rich mosaic of thousands of plant species shaped by climate, soil and elevation. These plant and animal communities occur in about 70 park units across the western United States, all threatened by wildfire and drought.
The Park Service has 3 million acres of sagebrush, and NPS ecologist Tom Rodhouse says all of it is threatened by fire-driven loss: after a fire, invasive annual grasses — cheatgrass above all — grow faster and replace the native plants.
- A vicious cycle. Annual grasses provide fine fuel for new fires, so more fire brings more annual grass, and more grass brings more fire — a cycle climate change is speeding up. Rodhouse calls it both a climate change problem and an adaptation opportunity.
- Carbon. Sagebrush stores carbon. When it burns, it releases large amounts into the atmosphere, and the soil stops storing it.
Resist, accept, direct
The Park Service is using the resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework to manage these landscapes as the climate changes. Some sagebrush is more resilient to fire and grass invasion than other sagebrush: the higher, colder sites hold the best remaining ecosystems and the best chance of success, while lower, hotter, drier sites degrade faster — so the resilient sites are the urgent priority. RAD weighs climate change, land use, non-native species and other changes together, asks where and why each strategy will work, and encourages working with other agencies and trying new research methods.
| Strategy | In the sagebrush |
|---|---|
| Resist | protect and defend landscapes, for example with fire breaks and other ways to limit fire's impact |
| Accept | acknowledge that burned landscapes stuck in the fire–grass cycle will change — "It doesn't mean we are just walking away," says Rodhouse — and work creatively with them: old farm fields turned to growing native bunchgrasses for restoration seed, and fire breaks inside degraded areas to protect intact land next to them |
| Direct | explore new approaches, such as assisted migration and combined restoration, to prepare landscapes for future climates |
Roy Zipp, superintendent of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and Rick Martinson, co-director of the East Cascades Native Plant Hub, with young native plants at the hub's Wintercreek Nursery. Credit: National Park Service.
The NPSage initiative
The Park Service began NPSage in its Pacific West Region, and it has since grown into a biome-wide effort across two regions. Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — its ecosystem restoration programme, signed November 15, 2021 — supports it, to build climate resilience and biodiversity in high-priority sagebrush, and has helped carry out the National Seed Strategy and widen access to restoration resources.
Replanting after fire, or fighting invasive plants, is not simple. Restorers must consider where to get native seed, whether it is the right species for the ecosystem, whether it was collected from a suitable environment, and whether it can be planted where it is needed. With the new funding, Rodhouse says, the seed strategy can be put into practice and burned landscapes restored more efficiently. The work will include effectiveness monitoring — something not invested in before — to check whether it succeeds.
Why save the sagebrush
- History. Some sagebrush landscapes, as at Big Hole National Battlefield and Fort Laramie National Historic Site, are designated cultural landscapes for their historical significance; the NPS Cultural Resources division manages those designations.
- Tribes. Many sagebrush-steppe plants have long been, and remain, important foods for Indigenous people — biscuitroot and pinyon pine nuts are still harvested by many tribally affiliated families. NPSage opens more chances to work directly with tribal partners collecting seed and growing native plants for restoration.
- Visitors. Visitors will see the burned and grass-infested landscapes, but also the crews at work, and can talk with them and learn what the funding is doing.
Sagebrush at Big Hole National Battlefield. Credit: National Park Service.
Sources
- National Park Service, "NPS Establishes NPSage Initiative to Restore Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystems." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nps-establishes-npsage-initiative-to-restore-sagebrush-steppe-ecosystems.htm
- Corrected: a photo caption calls Lava Beds a national park; it is a national monument, as the article's text says.
- Rewritten in hubnx's own words.
In these publicationsCraters Of The Moon National Monument & PreserveBlack Canyon Of The Gunnison National ParkCurecanti National Recreation AreaBig Hole National BattlefieldCity Of Rocks National Reserve
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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