An arid and fragile landscape dotted with sagebrush and perennial grasses stretches from the eastern slopes of the Cascades to beyond the Rocky Mountains and into parts of Canada. More than half of this sagebrush steppe ecosystem has been lost, threatened by climate change, invasive plants and human activity. A scientist at Oregon State University has spent more than a decade leading a team working to protect sagebrush habitats from another growing threat: huge wildfires. Lisa Ellsworth, a range ecologist and assistant professor at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, joins us to talk about her new research and how it’s helping inform wildfire management efforts in sagebrush habitats in Oregon, Idaho and Washington.