© 2025 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Coco Montoya concert for KBSU DJ Arthur Balinger

Could sheep help reduce wildfires in Idaho?

Three sheep stand in a field.
Radvydas S.
/
Flickr

Idaho is notorious for having summers clouded by wildfire and subsequently, the smoke created by them. This past summer, we were even the state with the worst wildfire smoke production smoke production for a couple of months.

This is a great concern for our citizens, as the smoke can have both short and long term health effects.

Researchers have been looking at various ways to help reduce wildfires. From Stanford University developing gel-like retardant to stop wildfires from spreading to Columbia University looking at small, intentional fires to prevent the larger ones from taking over. There are many approaches in the research realm at the moment.

Dr. Kelly Hopping and the project she is leading chose to focus on reducing a culprit of wildfires: Cheatgrass.

What is Cheatgrass?

Cheatgrass is an annual grass, meaning it grows for one season lasting two to three months before it dries up and bolts to seed. Cheatgrass is invasive in America and has taken over 15% of Idaho, about 52 million acres – much of which includes the diverse Sagebrush Steppe ecosystem that spreads almost the entire bottom half of Idaho.

Cheatgrass originally infiltrated the West in the mid-late 1800s through overgrazing and livestock movement.

Cheatgrass is an especially great invader of the Sagebrush Steppe because it is designed to burn yearly, whereas our other native plant species are mostly if not all, slow-growing. For instance, Mountain Big Sagebrush can live over 100 years, if the conditions are right. Or take our wildflowers, such as the Camas Lilly, which can live for 15 to 20 years.

These plants have adapted to survive drought, high-desert seasons, and must be fire-free to fulfill their lives. When Cheatgrass and other invasive grasses come into the ecosystem though, they increase the fireability of the ecosystem. After a fire comes through and the area has lost it’s native plants, it just gives more room for the Cheatgrass to takeover.

Diagram showing the fire cycle of invasive grasses and the Sagebrush Steppe
Ocean Tipping Point's "Sagebrush Grasslands"
/
oceantippingpoints.org

The loss of these native plants means a decline in native animals like sagebrush grouse, jackrabbits, birds of prey and rodents. Losing the animals that participate in the ecosystem’s food web and the plants which are an intricate part of the ecosystem, causes the death of the Sagebrush Steppe.

So, eventually, you get areas that become Cheatgrass Steppes – which lack the biodiversity (species difference and abundance), and instead of a thriving ecosystem with many amazing Idaho creatures, you get plain, brown fields, that usually have insects only. These become the perfect things to be set on fire causing health concerns for more wild areas and humans.

The Project

In the fall, I drove up to the Sawtooth National Forest to meet Hopping at her field location.

A landscape photo of the Sawtooth National Forest with rolling brown hills, golden aspen trees, and pines.
Abigail Moody
/
Boise State Public Radio

Hopping is with Boise State University’s Human Environment Systems research group. She said the department encourages its scientists “to do work that matters for local communities and involves local communities and decision-makers in helping shape the research to make it more impactful.”

Hopping has been leading this research project for three years, and it began when she got in touch with Renee Kehler, the rangeland management specialist for the Forest Service. Together, the two devised a project that would benefit rangeland managers, scientists and local inhabitants – starting with sheep.

A herd of sheep grazing underneath the coverage of pines
Abigail Moody
/
Boise State Public Radio

Sheep farmers have used land grant permits to graze their bands (around 1,000 sheep) on the Sawtooth National Forest rangeland for decades. When I went out into the field to see the project, I got to speak with Riley Kowitz, a second-generation farmer. He told me his family has run sheep for 20 years.

When Kehler and Hopping approached him a few years ago to see if he would help with the project idea he said “sure, why not?”

The Goal

Kehler told me about their mission.

“We're trying to see if sheep can reduce Cheatgrass, and we're hoping that through our learning processes that we can pass this on to other managers who would want to possibly implement targeted grazing and reduce annual invasive annual grasses.”

To do this, the researchers have directed the sheep herders to change their movement patterns. In modern days, most sheep herders move their livestock to do what is called "light, once-over grazing."

“The idea is that the sheep should never pass through the same area twice in the summer, so they should be spread out like as low impact as possible," explained Hopping. "Often, like, you might not even notice that the sheep had been there.”

In contrast, since the team wants to lower the biomass of Cheatgrass, they are having the herders move the sheep over the same area several times.

The challenge with targeting grazing is to time it just right — to avoid the sheep doing harm to the native plants, while working to attack Cheatgrass.

Hopping said so far, "...it’s looking promising that fall grazing might be that sweet spot where we can reduce Cheatgrass without having unintended consequences for the native plants ”.

Roberto Machacuay Román, a sheep herder from Peru who has worked for Kowitz for several years told me he thought the project was beneficial because the sheep eat Cheatgrass during the fall when it is dry and not in the winter/spring when it is green.

"Porque no, no, la oveja no come esa hierba en época de invierno, cuando está verde no come. Pero en esta estación, viendo que todo está seco, come..."

The team has three years of data collection and analysis and have applied for three more years of funding.

Hopping hopes they can continue the project to get many more years of data with different weather, treatment and timing conditions to eventually build a guide for other rangeland managers interested in targeted sheep grazing.

“We want to keep doing it for long enough that we feel really confident in our results, and we want to make sure that this helps support science backed management.”

Kowitz told me he hopes to continue to work with the researchers and government to, “build something hopefully for the future.”

Editor's Note: Renee's last name was incorrectly written but has been corrected.

I am in my senior year at Boise State and joined BSPR in 2024 to learn more about journalism and its many avenues. I plan to use my educational background to cover stories in STEM fields, education and human histories/cultures. In my free time, I will be somewhere outside (hiking, trail running, swimming, etc), painting/sketching or cooking with my cats as my Sous-chefs.

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.