Plant cover, density, and growth measurements from burned and unburned plots treated with indaziflam four years after the Soda fire

Protection of intact habitat from the spread of invasive plants is a global priority, especially where the invaders alter wildfire occurrence. Invasion of perennial sagebrush-steppe ecosystems by cheatgrass and other fire-promoting exotic annual grasses (EAGs) is one of the most notorious examples of this problem. Protection and expansion of the remaining intact "core" habitat sagebrush areas are key management goals, and whether this can be accomplished by temporarily inhibiting annual plant populations with preemergent herbicides is a key question. We applied indaziflam in fall 2019 to replicate plots within two sagebrush-steppe sites in the Northern Great Basin, USA: 1) a relatively intact, uninvaded, unburned "core" site, and 2) a partially invaded site that burned in the 2015 Soda Wildfire. Vegetation cover, density, and growth responses of native perennials were measured annually to 2024. We asked whether our treatments "defended" and "grew" core sagebrush-steppe areas