UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- An invasive grass species may be one reason fires are bigger and more frequent in certain regions of the Western United States, a team of researchers says.
Scientists at Penn State say cheatgrass, a plant species accidentally introduced by settlers in the West during the 1800s, was involved in a disproportionately high number of fires in the Great Basin, a 230,000-square-mile arid area that includes large sections of Nevada and parts of Utah, Colorado, Idaho, California and Oregon.