Big Sagebrush Burning
Author | : |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 158 |
Release | : 1973 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : |
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Author | : |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 158 |
Release | : 1973 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : |
Author | : Mark Randolph Champlin |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 272 |
Release | : 1982 |
Genre | : Big sagebrush |
ISBN | : |
Four studies were conducted. First, mountain big sagebrush communities were burned at Lava Beds National Monument, California, and The Crooked River National Grassland, Oregon. In two years at Lava Beds, basal cover of Idaho fescue in one community and Thur- ber's needlegrass in one of three communities did not recover. Basal cover of bluebunch wheatgrass and Sandberg's bluegrass re- covered or increased above prefire levels at the expense of Idaho fescue and Thurber's needlegrass. Bunchgrasses recovery was based on height and production which increased to equal or exceed prefire levels. At Crooked River, height and production of bluebunch wheat- grass were much higher than prefire levels, but basal cover remain- ed extremely low after two years. Prescribed burning recommenda- tions were presented. Secondly, after hot and cool in situ propane barrel burns, mountain big sagebrush seed emergence in the greenhouse was stimu- lated. Basin big sagebrush seed emergence was reduced by both fire intensities. Emergence was inverse to fire intensity for both sub- species. Wyoming big sagebrush was not affected by fire. Both in- tensities reduced emergence of most herbaceous species from mountain big sagebrush dominated soils. Hot fires were required to reduce emergence of the few herbaceous species affected by fire on basin and especially Wyoming big sagebrush dominated soils. A trend of in- creasing fire resistance with increasing site severity was evident. Thirdly, individual and area fuel loading equations were de- veloped for each component of fuel of the three subspecies of big sagebrush. R2 values for individual shrub equations ranged from .36 to .96. Line intercept cover, the number, and the height of intercepted shrubs were used to estimate area fuel loadings with R2 values ranging from .42 to .84. This method of estimating area fuel loading provides relatively high precision at reduced cost. Fourthly, basal cover and leaf length or plant height were used to estimate bunchgrass production. R2 values for burned plant equations were higher (.66-.87) than R2 values for unburned- ungrazed plant equations (.35-.85). Basal cover accounted for at least 70 percent of the variation in Thurber's needlegrass, burned Idaho fescue, and burned bluebunch wheatgrass production. Comparisons based on indirect estimation yielded results comparable to clipping.
Author | : Joseph Frank Pechanec |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 36 |
Release | : 1954 |
Genre | : Burning of land |
ISBN | : |
Author | : Stephen C. Bunting |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 40 |
Release | : 1987 |
Genre | : Forests and forestry |
ISBN | : |
Summarizes recent literature on the effects of fire on sagebrush-grass vegetation. Also outlines procedures and considerations for planning and conducting prescribed fires and monitoring effects. Includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the fire-sagebrush-grass literature published since 1980.
Author | : Bruce Leigh Welch |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 220 |
Release | : 2005 |
Genre | : Big sagebrush |
ISBN | : |
Pioneers traveling along the Oregon Trail from western Nebraska, through Wyoming and southern Idaho and into eastern Oregon, referred to their travel as an 800 mile journey through a sea of sagebrush, mainly big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata). Today approximately 50 percent of the sagebrush sea has given way to agriculture, cities and towns, and other human developments. What remains is further fragmented by range management practices, creeping expansion of woodlands, alien weed species, and the historic view that big sagebrush is a worthless plant. Two ideas are promoted in this report: (1) big sagebrush is a nursing mother to a host of organisms that range from microscopic fungi to large mammals, and (2) many range management practices applied to big sagebrush ecosystems are not science based.
Author | : Stephen V. Cooper |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2007 |
Genre | : Fire ecology |
ISBN | : |
Sagebrush is a widespread habitat throughout our study area and a number of species including Greater Sage-grouse, pronghorn, Brewers Sparrow, Sage Sparrow, Sage Thrasher and sagebrush vole are sagebrush dependent, at least at some stage of their life cycles. Fire constitutes an important driver in structuring sagebrush ecosystems; past investigations have established that the response of the big sagebrush component (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) varies according to subspecies. In an earlier study in southwestern Montana we statistically determined that recovery of mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana [Rydb.] Beetle) cover occurred in slightly more than 30 years, however the minimal data for Wyoming big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young), indicated a much longer recovery period (Lesica et al. 2005). In this study we used the same sampling protocol at 24 burned-unburned paired sites in central and southeastern Montana where Wyoming Big Sagebrush is the dominant big sagebrush taxon and the accompanying flora is more closely allied with the Great Plains than the Intermountain West. Prescribed burns and wildfires typically result in the complete mortality of Wyoming big sagebrush. We found that Wyoming big sagebrush recovers very slowly from both types of burns at all sites, even those with relatively moist conditions. Full recovery to pre-burn sagebrush canopy cover conditions will take well over 100 years. The median time since fire was 22 years and ranged from 4 to 67 years. We found no Wyoming big sagebrush canopy cover recovery for 17 of the 24 sites after burning had occurred and the oldest burn was only 8% recovered. Livestock grazing does not seem to be casual as the only site without livestock grazing for the entire period after burning had no canopy recovery in 25 years. Burned plots were located near unburned areas to ensure that a seed source was relatively available since Wyoming big sage is known to lack a soil seed bank. Perennial and annual grass cover increased after burning, however virtually all of the 11% increase in annual grass is from field brome (Bromus arvensis, formerly Japanese brome, Bromus japonicus), regarded as a weed with negative habitat and livestock value. Perennial grass cover increased 27% and 20% followed prescribed fi re and wildfire, respectively. Western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) increased by 17% and accounted for most of the perennial grass increase. These increases did not decline with time since burning, which may be explained by the lack of the competitive influence of sagebrush recovery. There was no change after burning in overall forb cover or the numbers of forbs of the Cichorieae Tribe of the Asteraceae family. The Cichorieae tribe forbs are important for successful Greater Sage-grouse brood rearing. Plant species richness significantly declined in burned plots compared to their unburned control plots. Our findings of extremely slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery after fire are similar to the other research in the area (Eichhorn and Watts 1984) and also supports findings by Baker (2007) that fire rotations for this subspecies are about 100 to 240 years. The slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery and the increase in the weedy annual grass field brome suggests that managers concerned about Greater Sage-grouse and other sage-dependent species should be extremely cautious with prescribed burns and wildfires in this region. Burns may essentially eliminate sagebrush habitat, increase weedy annual grass cover, reduce species richness, and could take a century or more for recovery to pre-burn sagebrush cover conditions.
Author | : Lori L. Ziegenhagen |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 260 |
Release | : 2003 |
Genre | : Prescribed burning |
ISBN | : |
Currently, the of lack information on shrub reestablishment following fire and the wide variability in rates of recovery have lead to uncertainty in using prescribed burning as a management tool in the mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle) alliance. This study examined the recovery of shrub density and percent canopy cover of mountain big sagebrush and other associated shrub species across 16 large fires, with between 4-49 years of recovery, in southeastern Oregon, northwestern Nevada, and northeastern California. Sagebrush recovery within the interior of these large (400 to 4000 ha each), uniform burns resulted from existing soil seed pools and in the absence of seed rain from adjacent unburned plants. We sampled 175 sites with over 31 km of line intercept and 6.3 ha of shrub density plots. On four of the fires, Badger Mountain (6 years since fire), Miller Canyon (10 yrs), Kiger (15 yrs) and Murdock (41 yrs) we further explored the chronosequence of shrub reestablishment by harvesting over 1400 mountain big sagebrush and 450 bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata (Pursh) D.C.) plants from interior locations where post-fire seed sources were limited to soil seed pools and unclaimed rodent seed caches. Shrub crowns were prepared in the lab and aged by at least two separate technicians using binocular dissecting microscopes. In our study area, the median % live canopy cover of mountain big sagebrush returned to 20-25% within 32-36 years after the fire event. Linear regression analysis showed that median % live canopy cover increased 3.429 times (3.932 to 2.990, 90% CI, p-value 0.001) with doubling of years since fire. Similarly, mean sagebrush densities increased 0.227 shrubs / m2 (0.267 to 0.188, 90% CI, p-value 0.001) with each doubling of years since fire. Years since fire explained 57% to 36% of the cover and density variation respectively and variation increased as recovery time increased. Shrub chronology suggests that where seed is limited to surviving soil seed pools, shrub reestablishment following fire occurred in three phases: Phase One) the opportunity for immediate shrub establishment from surviving soil seed pools, Phase Two) a lull in seedling establishment resulting from depleted soil seed pools, and Phase Three) the beginning of modal establishment from newly established on-site seed sources. The success or failure of soil seed pools to establish shrub densities during Phase One probably explains some of the variability in the formulas describing the rate of % shrub cover and density recovery following fire. Both regression analysis and the chronology data emphasize the importance of shrub reestablishment in the first 3-4 years following the fire (Phase One) in influencing the rate of shrub recovery. It would appear that quantifying sagebrush density and % cover after the first 3-4 years following fire will aid land managers in developing long-term, landscape level fire management plans by estimating future shrub recovery.
Author | : Bruce Leigh Welch |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 38 |
Release | : 2003 |
Genre | : Big sagebrush |
ISBN | : |
This paper examines the scientific merits of eight axioms of range or vegetative management pertaining to big sagebrush. These axioms are: (1) Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp.wyomingensis) does not naturally exceed 10 percent canopy cover and mountain big sagebrush (A.t.ssp.vaseyana) does not naturally exceed 20 percent canopy cover; (2) As big sagebrush canopy cover increases over 12 to15 percent, bare ground increases and perennial grass cover decreases; (3) Removing, controlling, or killing big sagebrush will results in a two or three or more fold increase in perennial grass production; (4) Nothing eats it; (5) Biodiversity increases with removing, controlling, thinning, or killing of big sagebrush; (6) Mountain big sagebrush evolved in an environment with a mean fire interval of 20 to 30 years; (7) Big sagebrush is an agent of allelopathy; and (8) Big sagebrush is a highly competitive, dominating, suppressive plant species.
Author | : United States. Forest Service. Northern Region |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 140 |
Release | : 1972 |
Genre | : Fire ecology |
ISBN | : |
Author | : |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 34 |
Release | : 2007 |
Genre | : Fire ecology |
ISBN | : |
Sagebrush is a widespread habitat throughout the study area and a number of species including greater sage-grouse, pronghorn, Brewers sparrow, sage sparrow, sage thrasher and sagebrush vole are sagebrush dependent, at least at some stage of their life cycles. Fire constitutes an important driver in structuring sagebrush ecosystems; past investigations have established that the response of the big sagebrush component (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) varies according to subspecies. Plant species richness significantly declined in burned plots compared to their unburned control plots. Findings of extremely slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery after fire are similar to the other research in the area. The slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery and the increase in the weedy annual grass field brome suggests that managers concerned about greater sage-grouse and other sage-dependent species should be extremely cautious with prescribed burns and wildfires in this region. Burns may essentially eliminate sagebrush habitat, increase weedy annual grass cover, reduce species richness, and could take a century or more for recovery to pre-burn sagebrush cover conditions.