Turning left off U.S. Highway 2 into the Moses Coulee Nature Preserve in Central Washington, the land changes from crisp golden bunchgrasses to ash. Flames have licked at the basalt cliffs on the sides of the coulee, leaving only black shadows on the rocky edges.
This rangeland burned in the massive Pearl Hill Fire on Labor Day weekend near Bridgeport, a town in Douglas County. The flames then traveled into this prime sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat less than 24 hours later. Firefighters caught it at the highway.
“Right now, it looks like a moonscape, whereas before, it was this diverse shrubland, with a lot of life and flowers and grasses and wildlife,” says Corinna Hanson, Moses Coulee land manager at The Nature Conservancy. In Washington, the shrub-steppe ecosystem historically covered about one-third of the state. Now, it’s estimated less than half of that is still intact.