Annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), red brome (Bromus rubens), and Mediterranean grass (Schismus spp.) are permanently altering the landscape and ecosystems of Nevada. These invaders from other continents exploit the natural fire cycles of Great Basin shrubland ecosystems by germinating in profusion immediately post-fire, out-competing natives for water and light, and creating masses of fine fuels that perpetuate a much shorter fire cycle. By this process, vast tracts of Nevada's landscape have been permanently altered to non-native annual grasslands. In the southern deserts, the spread of exotic annual grasses has created fire cycles where virtually none existed before.

Using satellite imagery and innovative analysis methods, the Nevada Natural Heritage Program has been helping to identify specific areas that either have major annual grass invasions requiring management, or are relatively free of invasives and could be protected before major problems develop. As a service to the public, and to the many groups and individuals working on this problem, we maintain the following electronic collection of relevant documents and data. Most are served in PDF format, and most computers already have the necessary software to read and print such documents. If yours does not, you will need to download the latest free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader plug-in first. We will add to this collection as documents come to our attention and are made available. Please contact the Webmaster if you know of and/or can provide any relevant documents. Recent additions are flagged as .

IN-HOUSE PUBLICATIONS (chronologic)

Peterson, E. B. 2007. A Map of Annual Grasses in the Owyhee Uplands, Spring 2006, Derived from Multitemporal Landsat 5 TM Imagery. Nevada Natural Heritage Program, Carson City, prepared for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Reno, NV, 28 February 2007. Online: report (screen quality 1796kB or print quality 15749kB), 2-page non-technical summary (23kb), and a full-sized poster image (8502kB). Also available on-line are the associated GIS data (33509kB).

Peterson, E. B. 2006. A Map of Invasive Annual Grasses in Nevada Derived from Multitemporal Landsat 5 TM Imagery. Nevada Natural Heritage Program, Carson City, prepared for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Reno, NV, 31 March 2006. Online: text (227kB), figures at screen-viewing resolution (1401kB), and figures at printable resolution (11025kB). Also available on-line are the associated GIS data (158463kB).

Peterson, E. B. 2003. Mapping Percent-Cover of the Invasive Species Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass) over a Large Portion of Nevada from Satellite Imagery. Nevada Natural Heritage Program, Carson City, prepared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Reno, NV, 30 December 2003. Online: text (228kb), appendices (150kb), figures at screen-viewing resolution (1777kB), and figures at printable resolution (4550kB). Also available on-line is a full-sized poster image (14084kB) and the GIS GRID coverage (55799kB).

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES (alphabetic)

Davison, J. and E. Smith. No date. A homeowners guide to cheatgrass (draft). University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Reno. Online: http://www.ucweeds.org/weedlist/docs/HomeownersGuidetoCheatgrass.pdf, accessed 30 October 2007.

Herrick, J. E., J. W. Van Zee, K. M. Havstad, L. M. Burkett, and W. G. Whitford. 2005. Monitoring manual for grassland, shrubland and savanna ecosystems. USDA, ARS, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM. Online: Jornada Experimental Range, Monitoring and Assessment web page, http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/monit_assess/monitoring.php, accessed 30 October 2007. [2 volume set available as PDF - some methods here have been applied in NNHP vegetation plots and resulting data should be compatible for meta-analyses.]

Pellant, M. 1996. Cheatgrass: the invader that won the west. USDI Bureau of Land Management, Idaho State Office, Boise. Online: Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project web site, http://www.icbemp.gov/science/pellant.pdf, accessed 30 October 2007.

(more to be added ...)