Army’s green recruits may solve wildfire problems

  • Published
  • By Officer Candidate Christian Venhuizen
  • Wyoming National Guard Public Affairs
CAMP GUERNSEY, Wyo. --  The key to saving thousands of acres, homes and heartache from devastating wildfires may lie in a handful of small plots of land in eastern Wyoming, surrounded by just enough wooden posts and barbwire to keep the cattle out. 

Inside the wire fence at the Wyoming National Guard's Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center is an experiment more than 10 years in the making. Grass seeds taken from select areas around the western United States have been cultivated and mixed together to form the cornerstone of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers frontline against invasive weeds. 

"There are a couple of weeds, especially cheatgrass, that we hope to control," said Tim Cary, a research agronomist with the corps' Cold Region Engineering and Research Lab. As an agronomist, Cary works to improve agricultural products and protect them against weeds and pests. In this case, he and the rest of the research team are fighting plant against plant. 

For the most part, the battle will rage in a region known as the Intermountain West, he said. It stretches from Texas to Calgary, Alberta, Canada and from eastern Washington to the Dakotas, even as far east as Kansas. 

The problems began with the introduction of invasive weeds, some like cheatgrass - also known as downy brome - came in as contaminants in grain shipments in the late 1800s. Those weeds take hold of the soil earlier in the year than the native plants, and produce thousands of seeds. The combination allowed the invasive weeds to dominate the landscape in a matter of decades. 

Those same plants dry quickly in the summer, turning the infected land into a field ripe for wildfire. The insidious nature of their lifecycle causes the invaders to be among the first plants to grow from the ashes. 

To combat the invasive weeds, the Army found as many "green recruits" as possible, including native plants and introduced plants with a positive environmental impact. "We looked at what plants were already here so we weren't introducing anything new," Mr. Cary said. "We looked at what was available to be greener longer." 

The military's problem goes beyond ensuring the noninvasive plants have a long life span. It also includes dealing with the impact of training with heavy vehicles off-road. A 55,000-pound M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System on a pair of tank tracks easily rips apart the terrain at Camp Guernsey. The upturned soil is a perfect breeding ground for plants like cheatgrass or six-weeks fescue, another invasive weed, said Dustin Kafka, the Wyoming coordinator for the Army's Integrated Training Area Management program. His team has worked with the corps to develop mixtures of seeds right for the local environment. 

"It seems with increases in training and drought, we're starting to see cheatgrass in places we've never seen it before," he said. A current test bed of invasive weed-fighting seeds was recently overrun by an M270. Now he's waiting to see what germinates in the wake of the training. 

"That's the ultimate goal - sustainability," Mr. Kafka said of the experimental seed mixture. "If it could reseed itself, we are golden." 

In order to beat out the invasive weeds, the researchers had to find plants that grew quickly, bounced back easily from damage and maintained a long life cycle. The range grasses that were found were sorted and tested in places like Camp Guernsey; Yakima Training Center, Wash.; Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah; and Fort Carson, Colo. All of the bases have different environmental pressures and needs. 

The plants that made the cut were made a little bit better using cross pollination and other traditional means. "We only improved the plants that were already growing there," said Tony Palazzo, with the corps' Engineering, Research and Development Center. "The plants were improved to make them more resilient to military training ... to be able to come up quickly and to spread after being damaged." 

To ensure they weren't creating monster plants of their own, Mr. Palazzo said his team sought peer reviews from nature conservancies and other government agencies. He said all of them certified the improved range plants. 

Some of the plants are already commercially available, including slender wheat grass, Siberian wheat grass and Russian wild rye. 

Military seed production is also active at the current test facilities and with the North Dakota Army National Guard and at the Utah Army National Guard's Camp Williams. 

"If you get it commercially developed, then the price per pound goes down," said Mr. Palazzo. In the case of Camp Guernsey, if the camp provides the harvesting equipment, the Army will provide enough seeds to start production for the mixtures the camp needs. 

Mr. Kafka currently spends upwards of $60,000 annually to buy seeds and plant them to reclaim the land for future training. He said he expects his costs to double, possibly triple due to an increase in the size of the Camp Guernsey training area. 

With the grasses firmly planted, the testing moved to practicality. Some of the grasses grow bases high off the ground, assuring an unpleasant ride or march for Soldiers in training. Others don't grow well in high altitudes, like those in Wyoming, but excel in other areas in Washington or Utah. 

"We hope that we selected enough environmental conditions that we can make an educated guess," Mr. Cary said about developing a planting guide to cover the broad range of the Intermountain West. 

Mr. Cary and Mr. Palazzo said the planting guide will be comprehensive enough to take most of the guess work out of seeding. Current testing will help researchers see if the land needs tilling, herbicide, both or neither before planting the seed mixtures. 

The researchers see the use of the seeds and planting guide as a military and public lands solution to fire and erosion danger beyond the military fence line. Palazzo said the applications extend from the training grounds to grounds operated by the Bureau of Land Management.