Those benefits - short-term protection from erosion and long-term relief from fires - make kochia the perfect plant for charred rangelands, far better than the flammable grasses that will be cultivated. A "miracle plant" is how one federal research geneticist describes the shrub. A one-two punch against wildfires.
So, in keeping with the Bush administration's policy of eschewing science and ignoring scientists, it should come as no surprise that there won't be a single kochia seed in the mix when 367,000 acres of federal land are reseeded as part of an emergency soil stabilization program this fall.
Jack Brown, the reseeding coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management's Utah office, argued for planting kochia on charred rangeland in central Utah, to no avail.
The BLM policy wonks in Washington struck kochia from the list of approved plants for emergency stabilization projects on barren land this year. The only explanation they can offer is that kochia is a shrub, and shrubs (excluding kochia) grow too slowly to prevent erosion. State BLM officials still hope to use the plant as part of a 40,000-acre rehabilitation project in central Utah next year, but funding is not guaranteed.
"This is bad policy," said Bill Hopkins, director of the state's Grazing Improvement Program. "The BLM is ignoring years of research," complained Jerry Chatterton, former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research lab in Logan.
Obviously, there's a disconnect. The experts are talking and, once again, Bush's bureaucrats aren't listening. That has to change.
The feds need to fund the state BLM's rehabilitation project in its entirety, and plant fire-resistant kochia in central Utah as soon as possible. And they need to allow land managers to use the miracle plant for all future fire restoration projects.
Kochia provides a great opportunity to break the cycle of bigger and more frequent fires in the Intermountain West. An opportunity to save property, homes, lives and millions of dollars. But unless the BLM rewrites the rules, it will be an opportunity lost.
