Bromus tectorum goes by many names — cheatgrass, downy brome, drooping brome — and is widespread in the Western United States after its accidental introduction in the 1800s from Eurasia.
Cheatgrass is an annual plant and either acts as a true annual or as a winter annual. Like most annuals, it will germinate, flower, produce seed and die in a single growing season. It can also straddle the colder months by germinating in the fall and laying dormant over the winter and completing its life cycle the following spring.
It gains the “cheat” part of its common name as it begins actively growing before native vegetation breaks winter dormancy and depletes the soil of valuable nutrients and moisture. Cheatgrass is particularly invasive in cold, semi-arid environments.
On top of outcompeting native plants by jumping the gun, cheatgrass can also alter the fire regimes by increasing fire frequency. In Idaho on the Snake River Plains, the presence of cheatgrass has shortened the fire frequency from 30- to 100-year cycles to three- to five-year cycles. This impacts native plants that don’t reach maturity in that time frame and reduces botanical composition of ecosystems. Sagebrush steppe communities are most likely to be invaded by cheatgrass and converted to grasslands due to the altered fire cycle.
The habitat of the federally threatened and state-endangered Gunnison sage-grouse is impacted by cheatgrass — a great example of how invasive species are the second largest threat to biodiversity, and threatened and endangered species, after habitat loss.
Cheatgrass is also not a suitable forage, despite having a high protein content in the spring. In late spring or early summer after completing its life cycle, the plant dies and turns into a brittle, spiky, fine fuel for fires.
Due to its shallow root system, cheatgrass is easy to pull out, but larger infestations can be more appropriately treated with carefully selected herbicides.
Archuleta County Weed and Pest is your local resource for managing noxious weed populations and controlling other pests.
CPR and first aid classes
CPR and first aid certification classes are offered every other month at the CSU Extension office, generally on the third Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 10 p.m. The cost for the classes is $80 for combined CPR/first aid and $55 for CPR, first aid or recertification. Call the Extension office at (970) 246-5931 to register.
Check out the online option on our website, https://archuleta.extension.colostate.edu/.
