Red Rock Fire

For the first day of the job, the Bureau of Land Management botany crew went out to a place called Red Rock. Before I go any further about what we are doing there I will give a brief history of Red Rock and what our intentions are. At the BLM we call it the Red Rock Fire. Why? Pretty self-explanatory, there was a friggen fire there! Anyways, like I said, there was a fire at Red Rock in 2009. Red Rock is located 20 minutes or so north of Reno, but once you are there it takes 20minutes of off road driving to get to the closest working site. Off road driving is the tits so I do not mind. Red Rock is a mountainous area that is typically leased out by the BLM for grazing. However, when there is a fire, grazing can not continue on the land and the land is given 3 years to "recover". Three years is not enough time for a land to recover from a fire and then be grazed on but it is better than nothing. This is year 2 since the fire and we have 1 more year to establish desired plants, do some fire prevention, weed control, and other botany stuff.

Cheatgrass. The enemy.

Back to the first day.

Our first day dealt with hand seeding of the perennial grass Poa secunda (Sandberg bluegrass) to out compete the introduced grazing grass Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass). Cheatgrass has been introduced because it has high grazing value than most natives, survives very well in this environment, and low maintenance (if any) for ranchers. Cheatgrass is a continuing problem in Nevada because is has and continues to change the fire cycle. Specifically, Cheatgrass decreases the time between fires. For those reasons, we take the time to hand seed. Hand seeding is not the only seeding being done at Red Rock. The BLM Fire Crew has done aerial and drill-seeding. The Fire Crew's efforts are more effective than hand seeding, but hand seeding is necessary for the steep and rocky areas where the drill can not get to. To date, the Botany crew has hand seeded roughly 15 sites which vary in size. In total, I believe we have put down well over 1,500lbs of seed. 


Seeding is not the only fire restoration and prevention work we are doing at Red Rock. In the coming two weeks the Botany crew will be planting 20,000 Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata)! Yes, I that is not a typo, 20,000 plants. I will post an update about that project after it is over. Our other project going on right now at Red Rock is planting of Willow cuttings alongside riparian areas. That is pretty self-explanatory and not the the extent of the Bitterbrush. In fall, we will be spraying the noxious weed, Scotch Thistle. 

Red Rock Fire.

Another Red Rock Fire Photo.

Observing the landscape.

Doing some seeding

Taking some lunch.