“Reduction of the Invasive Grass Medusahead Using Prescribed Fire on the Mt. Hamilton Range”

Prof. Stephens is a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

Medusahead is an invasive grass that covers more than 1 million acres of land in California alone. Heavy infestations reduce rangeland livestock forage, contribute to wildfire hazard, and diminish biodiversity. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of fire as a management tool to control Medusahead. Pretreatment cover, moisture content, and weather data were taken into account to determine the success of the burn. Seed samples were also collected at each burn unit for germination trials. Results show that discolored and charred seeds samples did not germinate, implying that fire was effective in killing the standing seed crop.

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Jonathan attends UC Santa Cruz studying Plant Science. His research project at Skyline on antibacterial properties of Native American medicinal plants received awards from California State University, Sacramento and the American Society for Microbiology symposiums. After completing undergraduate work he plans to gain field research experience and later pursue graduate studies in order to continue with plant research.