Hi Laura, thanks for these excellent thoughts! Very interesting about the ergot in your yard. And good point that with the deer and elk it may not just be soil disturbance, but also seed dispersal…

The species list is pretty diverse already! As far as trying to introduce additional diversity to the hill… you might take a gander through the plant list for Mount Helena and see if there are some things to add. If the cheatgrass patch can be weeded out, it might be a nice spot to throw some seeds. Maybe phacelia linearis.

I am hoping with all the rain this spring and summer that cheatgrass seeds will succumb to the ergot. Lots of ergot in my yard this year!

I wish I had a good answer to that question! With this particular cheatgrass patch, I don’t know whether native plants would eventually outcompete the cheatgrass, without any help. In general, though, if native perennials are able to establish on a site and if there isn’t soil disturbance, then the perennials should be able to compete successfully against the cheatgrass. On this site, I think we should be able to help perennials increase at the expense of cheatgrass by transplanting them.

That’s a lot of work, though! I don’t have experience at this point with successful strategies to replace cheatgrass with native plants on a larger scale. I’ve talked with people who have had good results by grazing intensively early in the spring (while the cheatgrass is still palatable) and then taking livestock off for the rest of the summer, in some situations. I’m sure there are other techniques that might work, as well. If anyone else reading this has experience with this question, please weigh in!