Governors pin wildfire blame on cheatgrass

BOISE – Four Western governors declared war Monday on cheatgrass, a nonnative weedy grass they blame for filling the West’s open spaces with flammable fuels feeding this summer’s massive wildfires.

Still, their efforts could be complicated by a shortage of seeds of other grasses needed to restore the charred landscape before cheatgrass takes hold. In fact, some of the federal Bureau of Land Management territory where such seeds are collected has been burned.

And environmentalists are leery about the plans for replanting, fearing they’ll concentrate on grasses that provide forage for livestock rather than native vegetation that helps wildlife such as sage grouse.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter hosted the meeting with Govs. Jon Huntsman, of Utah, and Jim Gibbons, of Nevada. All three are Republicans. Wyoming Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal participated by phone.

So far this year, wildfires in Idaho, Nevada and Utah have burned thousands of square miles, including the giant Murphy Complex fires on the Idaho-Nevada border that torched an area as large as Rhode Island.

By Sept. 1, the governors want a pilot project that will include planting grasses, in hopes of preventing cheatgrass from gaining a greater foothold. Their program will also include new cross-border pacts aimed at helping states share resources and gear when fires erupt, the governors said.

“It’s more than just burning grass out there,” Gibbons told reporters at a Boise news conference. “It’s an economy at risk, it’s state resources that are at risk, it’s the environment that’s at risk.”

A big hurdle to the governors’ reseeding plans: Officials say there aren’t enough seeds to go around. Every year, about 80,000 acres of federal land in the three states sees restoration, the governors said; this year, more than 10 times that area burned.

Otter and Idaho Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo last week chastised environmental groups such as the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project for filing (and winning) lawsuits in U.S. District Court that reduced cattle grazing. That increased dry fuels, adding to the fires, the Idaho Republicans contend. Environmentalists contend livestock grazing contributes to the spread of cheatgrass and subsequent wildfire danger.