Season and severity of prescribed burn in ponderosa pine forests: Implications for understory native and exotic plants

Kerns, Becky K.; Thies, Walter G.; Niwa, Christine G.

doi:10.2980/1195-6860(2006)13[44:sasopb]2.0.co;2

Cited by 66 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Previous work documented that prior to burning, no differences were detected in overstory tree structure (Thies et al 2005. But for the first round of prescribed fires (1997/1998), the fall burns were more severe, increasing tree mortality, reducing tree basal area, coarse woody debris cover, and litter cover and depth (Thies et al 2005, 2006, Kerns et al 2006. However, the reburns conducted in 2002/ 2003 did not result in any significant changes to tree structure (unpublished data).…”

Section: Fire Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study is part of a larger experiment in eastern Oregon designed to examine multiple prescribed fire effects (Smith et al 2004, Thies et al 2005, 2006, Kerns et al 2006, Hatten et al 2008. Vegetation cover and richness and grass height and flowering density were measured prior to a 5-year interval reburn and the subsequent exclusion of cattle, and in the first, second, and fifth growing seasons thereafter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reintroducing fire into a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: understory vegetation response

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Reestablishing historical fire regimes is a high priority for North American coniferous forests, particularly ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ecosystems. These forests are also used extensively for cattle (Bos spp.) grazing. Prescribed fires are being applied on or planned for millions of hectares of these forests to reduce fuel loads, alter forest structure, and maintain and enhance the productivity of native plant communities. However, cattle grazing is ubiquitous in ponderosa pine forests and the consequences of post-fire cattle grazing on plant communities are not well understood. We evaluated cattle grazing effects (grazing, no grazing) on upland bunchgrass and Carex geyeri dominated ponderosa pine plant communities over five growing seasons after prescribed fires (spring reburn, fall reburn, no burn). Vegetation was measured prior to a 5-year interval reburn and the subsequent exclusion of cattle, and in the second and fifth growing seasons thereafter. We found no interactions between reburning and grazing for the understory response variables. For all reburn treatments, including unburned areas, five growing seasons of cattle grazing exclusion significantly increased: (1) total vegetative cover, (2) native perennial forb cover, (3) grass stature, (4) grass flowering stem density, and (5) the cover of some shrub species and functional groups. Grazing exclusion did not strongly affect plant compositional patterns, although differences were detected. Compared to unburned areas, neither spring nor fall reburning increased perennial native species cover or richness, and reburning reduced sedge cover. Fall reburning increased cover of native colonizers, and exotic species cover and richness (largely Bromus tectorum and Cirsium vulgare), although overall exotic cover remains low (,1%). We document several potentially chronic impacts of cattle grazing in both burned and unburned areas, and show that the understory release from a long history of cattle grazing caused a greater degree of change than the initial reintroduction of fire. If a goal of ecological restoration in these forests is increased cover of native perennial plants, and the potential for increased native perennial grass reproduction, then cattle grazing exclusion, or a change in cattle management, could provide critically important options in restoration plans.

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Section: Fire Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reintroducing fire into a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: understory vegetation response

et al. 2011

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“…Alien species often respond to the severity of disturbance (Keeley et al 2003, Dodson and Fiedler 2006, Kerns et al 2006, Collins et al 2007. Because of the added activity fuels, more fuel mass was consumed by burning in this treatment than in the burning-alone treatment.…”

Section: Understory Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: effects of fuel reduction methods on forest vegetation structure and fuels

Schwilk

Keeley

Knapp

et al. 2009

Ecological Applications

237

172

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Abstract. Changes in vegetation and fuels were evaluated from measurements taken before and after fuel reduction treatments (prescribed fire, mechanical treatments, and the combination of the two) at 12 Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) sites located in forests with a surface fire regime across the conterminous United States. To test the relative effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments and their effect on ecological parameters we used an informationtheoretic approach on a suite of 12 variables representing the overstory (basal area and live tree, sapling, and snag density), the understory (seedling density, shrub cover, and native and alien herbaceous species richness), and the most relevant fuel parameters for wildfire damage (height to live crown, total fuel bed mass, forest floor mass, and woody fuel mass).In the short term (one year after treatment), mechanical treatments were more effective at reducing overstory tree density and basal area and at increasing quadratic mean tree diameter. Prescribed fire treatments were more effective at creating snags, killing seedlings, elevating height to live crown, and reducing surface woody fuels. Overall, the response to fuel reduction treatments of the ecological variables presented in this paper was generally maximized by the combined mechanical plus burning treatment. If the management goal is to quickly produce stands with fewer and larger diameter trees, less surface fuel mass, and greater herbaceous species richness, the combined treatment gave the most desirable results. However, because mechanical plus burning treatments also favored alien species invasion at some sites, monitoring and control need to be part of the prescription when using this treatment.

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“…Litter and duff typically blanket most of the ground surface in dry conifer forests of the west [21,51,68], and prior to the Hayman Fire, our study site was no exception. Although the Hayman Fire consumed some of the pre-fire litter and duff in low-severity areas, it did not alter their cover in the first post-fire year relative to pre-fire levels.…”

Section: Surface Covermentioning

confidence: 97%

Overstory Structure and Surface Cover Dynamics in the Decade Following the Hayman Fire, Colorado

Fornwalt

Stevens‐Rumann

Collins

2018

Forests

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Abstract:The 2002 Hayman Fire burned with mixed-severity across a 400-ha dry conifer study site in Colorado, USA, where overstory tree and surface cover attributes had been recently measured on 20 0.1-ha permanent plots. We remeasured these plots repeatedly during the first post-fire decade to examine how the attributes changed through time and whether changes were influenced by fire severity. We found that most attributes were temporally dynamic and that fire severity shaped their dynamics. For example, low-severity plots experienced a modest reduction in live overstory density due to both immediate and delayed tree mortality, and no change in live overstory basal area through time; in contrast, high-severity plots experienced an immediate and total loss of live overstory density and basal area. Large snag density in low-severity plots did not vary temporally because snag recruitment balanced snag loss; however, in high-severity plots large snag density increased markedly immediately post-fire and then declined by about half by post-fire year ten as snags fell. Mineral soil cover increased modestly immediately post-fire in low-severity plots and substantially immediately post-fire in high-severity plots, but changed little in ensuing years for either severity class. By incorporating pre-fire and repeatedly-measured post-fire data for a range of severities, our study uniquely contributes to the current understanding of wildfire effects in dry conifer forests and should be of interest to managers, researchers, and others.

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Season and severity of prescribed burn in ponderosa pine forests: Implications for understory native and exotic plants

Cited by 66 publications

References 47 publications

Reintroducing fire into a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: understory vegetation response

Reintroducing fire into a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: understory vegetation response

The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: effects of fuel reduction methods on forest vegetation structure and fuels

Overstory Structure and Surface Cover Dynamics in the Decade Following the Hayman Fire, Colorado

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