Saddle Mountain Site
| Location: | Near Richland, WA |
| Land Management Agency: | Bureau of Reclamation (fire, mow, tebuthiuron); US Fish and Wildlife Service Hanford Reach National Monument (control) |
| SageSTEP Site Manager: | Scott Shaff |
| Plots: | Four 80-acre core plots (Control, Burn, Mechanical, Herbicide) |
| Elevation: | 860-940 ft |
| Topography: | 1–5 % slope with a Southern aspect |
| Common Vegetation: | Bluebunch wheatgrass, Wyoming big sagebrush, Indian ricegrass, and bottlebrush squirreltail |
| Soils: | Warden, very fine sandy loam |
| Fire Regime: | The Wyoming big sagebrush type is the driest of the sagebrush steppe communities and historically had a fire return interval of approximately 50-100 years The introduction of cheatgrass into the sagebrush grassland communities has increased fine fuels and reduced the fire return interval to less than 10 years. |
| Representative Land Base: | This site is representative of sage steppe ecosystem of the Columbia Plateau of eastern Washington. |
| Grazing: | This site is actively grazed and will be fenced for the duration of the study to exclude livestock. |
| Treatments Implemented: | Fall 2008 by USFWS. For more information about treatments, click here. |
Updated 2009
Saddle Mountain subplot progress images
Low Desert Sagebrush-Cheatgrass Control Subplots
Saddle Mountain Site Yearly Photo Sequence
All of the SageSTEP study sites have a control plot to account for variations that are not related to treatment, such as yearly climatic variation. Plateau pre-emergence herbicide was sprayed on half of the subplots on the control plot to control cheatgrass. The images below show two Saddle Mountain subplots from 2007–2010, one where Plateau was not used and one where Plateau was sprayed at a rate of 6oz per acre after treatment in fall 2006.
Standard Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
Plateau Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
Low Desert Sagebrush-Cheatgrass Prescribed Burn Subplots
Saddle Mountain Site Yearly Photo Sequence
Prescribed burns were implemented at all of the SateSTEP sagebrush-cheatgrass study sites to help land managers better understand the relationship between soil composition, vegetation communities, invasive species like cheatgrass and fires. The Saddle Mountain burn took place in the fall of 2008 after baseline data were collected. Plateau pre-emergence herbicide was crossed with the prescribed burn treatment on half of the subplots to control cheatgrass. The images below show two subplots from 2007–2010, one where Plateau was not used and one where Plateau was sprayed at a rate of 6oz per acre after treatment in fall 2008.
Standard Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
Plateau Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
Low Desert Sagebrush-Cheatgrass Mow Subplots
Saddle Mountain Site Yearly Photo Sequence
Prescribed burns were implemented at all of the SateSTEP sagebrush-cheatgrass study sites to help land managers better understand the relationship between soil composition, vegetation communities, invasive species like cheatgrass and fires. The Saddle Mountain burn took place in the fall of 2008 after baseline data were collected. Plateau pre-emergence herbicide was crossed with the prescribed burn treatment on half of the subplots to control cheatgrass. The images below show two subplots from 2007–2010, one where Plateau was not used and one where Plateau was sprayed at a rate of 6oz per acre after treatment in fall 2008.
Standard Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
Plateau Subplot
2007 – Pre-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2008 – 1 Year Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2009 – 2 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
2010 – 3 Years Post-treatment
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