A very good, sad and long article from today's LA Times about the cycle of fire and invasives that is taking out millions of acres of the Western US's sagebrush. Of course, some of what they are refering to is Artemesia, but mainly it is Salvia related.

This part I fould especially interesting, "...Sage reseeding "is a crapshoot," Pellant says. If there's not enough moisture or it's too hot, the tiny sage seeds -- the size of specks of ground pepper -- dry out and won't germinate. Freezes can kill infant plants. Another fire will wipe them out.

Simply figuring out the best reseeding techniques has required an inventor's ingenuity. In the 1980s, the first sage reseeding attempts were made from the back of a pickup truck. Then the "Jarbridge sagebrush seeder" was devised. It worked like a big fertilizer spreader pulled behind a truck, followed by a row of rolling tires to press the seeds into the soil.

Aerial drops have been the favored method because they can quickly cover large areas. But they often don't work because the sage seed spreads too lightly on the ground. Federal researchers are working with engineers to modify farm seeding equipment to apply sage with other natives..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-wildfires2-2008aug02,0,910822.story