美国国家公共电台 NPR A Sea Of Sagebrush Disappears, Making Way For Fire-Prone Cheatgrass

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land are going up in flames every year. A lot of it is rangeland. It's home to rural ranching² communities and the endangered sage³ grouse⁴. Ashley Ahearn brought us this story from Elko, Nev.

ASHLEY AHEARN, BYLINE⁵: Jon Griggs has been running the Maggie Creek⁶ Ranch¹ for almost 30 years. In 2007, wildfire tore through thousands of acres and destroyed several ranch buildings. The wind howled. The sky was orange. And Griggs couldn't see more than a dozen yards in front of him with all the smoke. He kicks the dirt with his black cowboy boot, and his voice catches in his throat when he talks about it.

JON GRIGGS: We thought, that's not going to happen to us. And it got us. And I think about that day. I don't like to think about that day.

AHEARN: Griggs and other locals will tell you there's always been fire here. But now the fires are bigger and more frequent than anyone can remember. In just the past two years, more than 800,000 acres of sagebrush have burned in northern Nevada alone. Climate change is at least partially⁷ to blame. But there's another, more immediate⁸ culprit.

GRIGGS: We're standing⁹ in the culprit right here. That's cheatgrass.

AHEARN: Griggs bends down and picks up a sprig of yellow-green spindly grass with a tufted head. Cheatgrass is an invasive species that's out-competing sagebrush and other native plants in rangelands across the West. But unlike sagebrush, which tends to burn every 50 to a hundred years, cheatgrass burns every five to 10, and it regrows faster after a fire. So more fire means more cheatgrass, and more cheatgrass means more fire.

JOLIE POLLET: And each time that fire gets a little bit bigger, gobbles up a little bit more native vegetation. And so the cycle is perpetuating¹⁰.

AHEARN: Jolie Pollet is a fire manager with the Bureau of Land Management in Boise. More than 2 million acres of BLM rangelands burn on average each year. And that number is increasing, thanks in large part to cheatgrass. But Pollet says forest fires still get more funding and attention.

POLLET: There seems to be an imbalance in the amount of resources and conversation in terms of policy and legislation dealing¹¹ with rangeland fire issues versus¹² forest fire issues.

AHEARN: Caleb McAdoo, a biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, drives his truck through an area that burned last summer in the Martin Fire. It was the largest in state history. Blackened sagebrush skeletons dot the landscape for miles. Gray ash blows in the wind on the horizon.

CALEB MCADOO: It's hard to wrap your head around a fire that's so long that you can drive through all day long and be in the black, burnt landscape. It's a big battle.

AHEARN: The endangered sage grouse population here is struggling, and fire hasn't helped. More than 35 mating sites, or leks, were destroyed in the Martin Fire. Some birds caught fire and flew ahead of the racing¹³ flames, trying to escape, only to fall to the earth and ignite more rangeland. Firefighters here call them streamers.

Anyone who's driven across the West might get the impression that there is plenty of sagebrush out here. But for people like McAdoo, who've spent their whole lives here and watched cheatgrass take over more rangeland with each fire, there's a growing sense of loss.

MCADOO: You see it. It's not a sea of sagebrush anymore. We are losing it, and it's truly depressing.

AHEARN: Land managers like McAdoo are working with private landowners to plant native seeds, spray herbicides and use cows for targeted grazing to keep the cheatgrass at bay. But it keeps spreading. And each summer brings more fires that may not make national news very often but tell a story of a landscape that is changing profoundly. For NPR News, I'm Ashley Ahearn in Elko, Nev.

1 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

2 ranching   

adj.放牧的

参考例句：

• They cleared large tracts of forest for farming, logging and ranching. 他们清除了大片的森林以经营农耕、采伐与畜牧。
• This is a trade center in a ranching and oil-producing region. 这是一个牧场与产油区的贸易中心。

3 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

4 grouse   

n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦

参考例句：

• They're shooting grouse up on the moors.他们在荒野射猎松鸡。
• If you don't agree with me,please forget my grouse.如果你的看法不同，请不必介意我的牢骚之言。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

7 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 perpetuating   

perpetuate的现在进行式

参考例句：

• Revenge leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. 怨怨相报会导致永不休止的暴力。
• It'set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. 它的目的只是要根除异端邪说，结果却巩固了异端邪说。 来自英汉文学

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

13 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。