The Chugach National Forest has been using prescribed fire as a wildlife habitat management tool since l977. Between 1977 and 1997 about 4,000 hectares have been burned on the Kenai Peninsula to promote regeneration of woody plant species used by moose (Alces alces). Browse species include paper birch (Betula papyrifera),...
Published September 1985. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
The effects of prescribed burning on the rates of recent litter
decomposition, nitrogen and phosphorus release from litter, soil total and
inorganic nitrogen pools, and net nitrogen mineralization were determined in
ponderosa pine sites that had been burned 0.3, 5 or 12 years earlier. Prescribed
burning decreased litter decomposition rates...
Prescribed burning is increasingly being used as a management tool to reduce potential fuels on the forest floor and promote stand vigor through removal of dense, crowded vegetation. Because fire affects both the standing vegetation and the amount of downed wood in the ecosystem, it is imperative to examine how...
Forest fires contribute a significant amount of CO₂ to the atmosphere each year, and CO₂ emissions from fires are likely to increase under projected conditions of global climate change. In addition to volatilizing aboveground biomass and litter layers, forest fires have a profound effect on belowground carbon (C) pools and...
Managers and policy-makers across broad disciplines and organizations are calling for a better understanding of public opinion on natural resource issues. One such issue is that of fire and its role in the management of our forests and rangelands. Public perceptions of fuel reduction techniques, with a particular emphasis on...
The effects of prescribed burning on the abundance, species
composition, and reproduction of small mammals were studied over a
one year period. Two burn areas were studied, one in sagebrush/
bunchgrass and one in cheatgrass. The short-term effects were
studied using monthly mark-recapture trapping on two treatment and
two control...
I conducted two separate studies, both related to the impacts of spring and fall prescribed fire on ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Loud.) forest soils in Eastern Oregon. The studies were either conducted at or linked to four stands of ponderosa pine, in the Malheur National Forest. Each stand...
In the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, prescribed fire and mechanical harvesting economics were investigated for fuels reduction and forest restoration. Using a cut-to-length harvesting system, three single-grip harvesters and three forwarders produced significantly different production rates. For the harvesters, significant variables that affected production rates were found to be:...
The forest health of the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon and Washington has sustained great impacts primarily caused by disease and insect epidemics. In order to restore forest health and reduce fuel loads, management tools like prescribed fire and mechanical chinning are being tested by forest managers in the region'...
In the wetland prairie of William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge (FNWR) in western Oregon, we investigated the response of Delphinium pavonaceum Ewan (peacock larkspur, Ranunculaceae), an endangered perennial forb, to four unreplicated dormant season fire regimes of 0, 2, 4, or 10 fires that were applied over a 12-year...
Summary 1. Woody plant encroachment of grasslands is occurring globally, with profound ecological consequences. Attempts to restore herbaceous dominance may fail if the woody state is resilient or if intervention leads to an alternate, undesirable state. Restoration outcomes often hinge on biotic interactions – particularly on priority effects that inhibit...
In response to the recent expansion of piñon and juniper woodlands into sagebrush-steppe communities in the northern Great Basin region, numerous conifer-removal projects have been implemented, primarily to release understory vegetation at sites having a wide range of environmental conditions. Responses to these treatments have varied from successful restoration of...
Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests are characterized by unusually high understory plant species diversity, but models describing understory ground cover biomass, and hence fuel load dynamics, are scarce for this fire-dependent ecosystem. Only coarse scale estimates, being restricted on accuracy and geographical extrapolation, are available. We analyzed the dynamics...
Anthropogenic land use alterations such as livestock grazing and fire
suppression have greatly altered sagebrush grasslands of the Great Basin,
facilitating invasion of exotic annuals, increases in woody species, and losses of
native species. Much of the current research surrounding wildland and prescribed
fire in sagebrush dominated ecosystems has focused...
Prescribed fire is commonly applied world-wide as a tool for enhancing habitats and altering resource-selection patterns of grazing animals. A scientific basis for this practice has been established in some ecosystems but its efficacy has not been rigorously evaluated on mesic sagebrush steppe. Beginning in 2003, resource-selection patterns of beef...
In the western United States, sagebrush (Artemisia spp L.) dominated rangelands are extensive, accounting for approximately 63 million ha. The Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young) alliance is found in more xeric environments, occupying the largest area of the big sagebrush complex in areas within...
Published February 1977. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
This annotated bibliography is collected from professional journals in natural resource management and sociology, conference proceedings, and technical reports. It is categorized into thirteen sections: acceptability, fire in wilderness, general, history, institutions, media, policy, public attitude toward wildfire, public involvement, public perception of prescribed burning, risk perception, social psychology, and...
We compared the potential fire behavior and smoke production of historical and current time periods based on vegetative conditions in forty-nine 5100- to 13 500-hectare watersheds in six river basins in eastern Oregon and Washington. Vegetation composition, structure, and patterns were attributed and mapped from aerial photographs taken from 1932...
Stands of brush and tree species of low commercial value dominate many potentially productive forest lands in western Oregon. Site preparation to reduce competition from such vegetation will improve the success of reforestation efforts, as well as reduce the cost of controlling small mammals that destroy seeds and seedlings. Site...
Ventenata dubia L. (ventenata) is an introduced, winter annual grass that has recently been raising concerns across the Pacific Northwest Bunchgrass Prairie and the Palouse Prairie. It is well established now in pasturelands, croplands, and a variety of ecosystems including grasslands, sagebrush steppe, ponderosa pine forests and woodlands. Ventenata is...
A series of stereo photographs displays a range of residue loadings for cleancut units in three general forest types common to coastal Oregon forest lands: Douglas-fir--western hemlock (second-growth), western hemlock--Sitka spruce, and red alder. Postburn residue levels are also represented for the Douglas-fir--western hemlock, and red alder types. Information with...
Delayed tree mortality is an unpredictable occurrence when prescribed burning is implemented. Fire scorched trees may die as the result of crown scorching, stem charring, root injury, bark beetle attack, or through a combination of these factors. This study examined ponderosa pine mortality and the incidence of two bark beetle...
Prescribed fire can release herbaceous forages from woody plant competition thus promoting increased forage plant production, vigor, and accessibility. Prescribe fire also consumes standing litter thereby improving forage quality and palatability. Consequently, prescribed fire is commonly considered an effective tool for manipulating livestock distribution on rangelands. Efficacy of this tool...
The purpose of this report is to review existing wildfire prevention activities and recommend strategies to reduce the number and severity of human-caused wildfires in Oregon.
Oregon’s forest protection system was created in 1911. At that time, timber harvesting, forest management, and other land-clearing activities were the predominant uses of...
This PowerPoint presentation contains selected images pertaining to the topic of fire in Pacific Northwest forests—both wildfire and prescribed fire. Viewers are welcome to use this PowerPoint or any images contained therein. The material has been assembled during much of the author’s career, so proper attribution would be appreciated when...
Full Text:
fire
in
Pacific
Northwest
forests—both
wildfire
andprescribedfire.
It
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....
Decline of western sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus phaios)
in Oregon may be related to the reduced availability of foods in upland
sagebrush (Artemisia)-grasslands used for brood-rearing. The goal of
this study was to determine primary foods of chicks and the short-term
response of brood-rearing habitat to prescribed burning at Hart...
The hydrophobicity of soils of the Deschutes National Forest was
studied. The soils are Cindery Typic Cryorthents, formed in cinders
and ash from Mt. Mazama. Ponderosa pine is the dominant overstory
vegetation. Of particular interest was the effect of prescribed
burning on hydrophobicity. Fire has been shown to cause a...
Short-term effects of 3 grazing systems and prescribed burning on bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations were investigated on the Welder Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christi, Texas, during spring (April through June) and fall (September through October) of 1976 and 1977. Two rotational systems, high intensity-low frequency (HILF) and four-pasture, deferred-rotation (4PDR),...