controlled burns

Scientists still aren't sure what maintains the Great Plains Grasslands and keeps them separate from forests. A very common hypothesis is that there are climatic differences between the areas where each type of ecosystem forms. But the boundaries between the two ecosystems have been slowly disintegrating since around 1850, which caused a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist to wonder if something else was responsible for keeping them separate.

The Bureau of Land Management has announced it will be lighting controlled burns in Southwest Wyoming. The target area includes more than 7,000 acres…