Wildfire in Grass-Dominated Landscapes

In grass-dominated landscapes, spatial, temporal and social dimensions of wildfire risks are challenges for land managers whose goal is to meet the needs of their communities while maintaining the ecological integrity and ecosystem services of the lands they manage. Grass-dominated landscapes, characterized by an abundance of fine fuels and dry conditions, are prone to fire and pose heightened risks to communities. Strategic fuel treatments can reduce the probability of large or extreme fire events by reducing fuel loads, modifying vegetation structure and creating defensible spaces to lessen the impact of wildfire. However, in grass-dominated landscapes, more frequent and long-term management is needed to maintain efficacy (Conver et al., 2018).

One of the primary challenges lies in developing adaptive strategies that consider the dynamic nature of grass landscapes, climate influences and the need for effective risk reduction to ensure long-term resilience against wildfire threats. Fire, both wildfire and prescribed fire, is a necessary step towards reducing wildfire risks to people and assets, and for the long-term goal of grass restoration (Donovan et al., 2023). In grass-dominated landscapes, where fire can quickly affect communities, well-planned fuel treatments are essential for safeguarding lives, assets, and natural resources while fostering sustainable land management practices. However, further research is needed for guidance in designing landscape-scale fuel treatments in grass-dominated landscapes.

These factors underscore the necessity for efforts to assess, communicate and enact management strategies grounded in risk reduction, with the goal of improving land conditions, reducing management costs, and most importantly, reducing risk to people, assets, natural resources and landscapes. Land management strategies will need to adapt to changes in climate and increasing populations that also incorporate the health and function of landscapes to support continued stewardship, sustainability and plan for future disturbances and land-type changes (Cruz et al., 2022).

Wildfire Fuels Management Practices in Grass-Dominated Landscapes

An Overview of Fire Behavior, Management Practices and Treatment Methods in Mixed-Grass Landscapes

In response to the complex challenges posed by fire risks in grasslands, we have produced an online resource developed in collaboration with the Southern Rockies Fire Science Network and the Great Plains Fire Exchange.

This comprehensive overview aims to equip land managers, policymakers and partners with essential knowledge on grassland fire behavior and effective management approaches. Grasslands, the most imperiled terrestrial ecosystem on earth, face numerous threats including altered wildfire regimes, invasive species, and impacts of human land use and climate change.

The development of this review is driven by the critical need to address the escalating wildfire risks and challenges faced in these landscapes. By summarizing the latest research findings and science, our goal is to provide land managers, policymakers and partners with a foundation of information on fire behavior and management approaches specific to grass-dominated landscapes. First, we introduce the dominant fuel types found in grass-dominated landscapes and review fire behavior and risks, followed by information on critical weather conditions that can affect fire, particularly in grass fuels. Finally, this overview provides some fundamental information on management methods and recommendations including defensible space and fuel break information for grass-dominated landscapes.

Our goal with this overview report is to provide the fundamental information needed to support effective wildfire mitigation management decisions and actions, ultimately enhancing the safety and resilience of communities adjacent to grass fuels. Through this endeavor we aim to facilitate informed decision-making, promote resilience and mitigate the adverse impacts of wildfires on both landscapes and communities.

Explore the Grassland Pages

Grass-Dominated Landscapes

Fuels Management

Case Studies

Significance

Grasses represent a critical component of many landscapes. In landscapes where grasses are the predominant vegetative fuel type, these regions are characterized by an abundance of fine fuels and can be particularly vulnerable to wildfire due to their rapid fuel accumulation and high fire frequency. Complications in these landscapes include changes associated with dynamic and complex processes such as altered wildfire regimes, invasive species, including woody encroachment and conifer expansion, human land use and modification, and impacts resulting from a changing climate. These impacts have led to a loss of at least 80% of these grasslands, including a loss of 99% of tallgrass prairie (Blair et al., 2014; U.S. Fish & Wildlife, 2024), resulting in grasslands being the most imperiled terrestrial ecosystem on the planet, experiencing a far greater rate of conversion than forests (Scholtz et al., 2022).

Increasingly arid conditions, modifications to grass-dominated landscapes and invasive species have contributed to elevated wildfire behavior and risk (Ford et al., 2021). Wildfires occurring in areas predominantly populated by fine rapidly igniting fuels, like those found in grass-dominated landscapes, can quickly impact communities within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) with little forewarning. In such instances standard predictions of fire spread may not be capable of issuing timely emergency warnings in advance of a fast-moving fire (Cruz et al., 2022). Consequently, communities situated in grass-dominated landscapes may require different guidelines concerning defensible space, home hardening, and other fire risks and hazards (Wells et al., 2021).

Forests FM: CSFS Podcast

Episode 6: Grassland Fire

Grassland fires are occurring more frequently in the West, and with a year-round fire season, it’s more relevant than ever to keep a close eye on our grassland fuels. In this episode, Janae Coston-Malpas, Wildfire Resilience Coordinator for the CSFS, shares new expertise on grassland fuels management. You’ll hear how Colorado’s climate, winds and mountains all shape grassland conditions in the wildland-urban interface. We share guidance for land managers to approach grassland fuels management and information for homeowners to build familiarity with grasslands, home hardening and local community wildfire protection plans.

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Key Terms

Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) – Plans that bring together diverse local interests to discuss their mutual concerns for public safety, community sustainability and natural resources. CWPPs help inform local firefighting capability, defensible space around homes and subdivisions and how to prioritize land management on both federal and non-federal land.
Defensible space – The area around a home or other structure that has been modified to reduce fire hazards. In this area, natural and manmade fuels are treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of wildfire.
Fuel break – An area where the quantity of fuels is reduced or eliminated and acts as a barrier to fire growth.
Fuels management – Involves altering the structure and amount of fuels to reduce fire behavior and create access points for fire management resources.
Grassland – Ecosystems marked by dominance or co-dominance of grasslike vegetation, including grass, sedges and rushes
Grassland fuel connectivity – Describes how grasslands wildfires can link to other fuel sources like forests or urban areas
Heterogeneous landscape treatments – Efforts that disrupt the continuity of fuels and increase the patchiness of fuels can reduce the rate of fire spread and fire intensity (e.g., combinations of mechanical, herbicide, grazing and prescribed fire).
Live Wildfire Ready – Learn how to protect your home and property.
Vegetative Fuels – Plant material that is readily ignitable (e.g., grasses).
Wildfire Mitigation – On-the-ground treatments of properties implemented to reduce the chance of a wildfire causing damage.
Wildland-Urban Interface – Areas where human development is close to, or within, natural terrain and flammable vegetation.