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Non-Native Grasses Fuel Fires

The Carefree Complex Fire, which burned through the Sonoran in 2005, rolls toward a stand of saguaro cacti.
The Carefree Complex Fire, which burned through the Sonoran in 2005, rolls toward a stand of saguaro cacti. Photo: Jeff Topping (Getty Images)

“We have this increase of non-native grasses, the grassification of the Western United States and in many of the deserts,” Ben Wilder, a desert ecologist, told PBS. “And that drives a fire regime and introduces a fire regime to the desert that’s pretty novel.”

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