Prescribed Burning in the Loess Hills Mixed Prairie of Southern Nebraska

Abstract

Abused rangelands dominated by introduced cool-season gmsses and warm-season shortgrasses are common over much of the Mixed Prairie. Native decreaser species are primarily warm-season grasses and are present at only hwigniflcant levels on abused rangeland in the Loess Hills of southcentral Nebraska. A single, Iatespring, prescribed fire was evaluated as II method of improvement. The study area consisted of 3 tracts of plots located on Holdrege silt loam soil (Typic Argiustall) with an average annual precipitation of 550 mm. The vegetation on the tracts was in low range condition, with cool-and warm-season components being present in varying proportions on all tracts. In general, the dominant cool-season species were Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and annual bromes (Bromus spp.), and the dominant warm-season species were blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides). Burning reduced the basal cover and herbage yields of cool-season species. This favored the warm-season component. The increaser short grasses generally exhibited higher herbrge yields and basal cover on burned as compared to unburned plots. These results indicate that a single, late-spring, prescribed bum may have a limited potential as a range improvement practice in the Loess Hills of south central Nebraska.

Long-Term Effects of a Summer Fire on Desert Grassland Plant Demographics in New Mexico

“…Similar negative fire responses in black grama have been noted throughout its range (Reynolds and Bohning 1956;Jameson 1962;Cable 1965;Wright 1980;Drewa and Havstad 2001;Peters and Gibbens 2006). The other grass species examined in this study (purple three-awn and spike dropseed) also showed negative fire impacts and multiyear recovery times, a finding that is generally consistent with previous studies on Aristida (Christensen 1964;Trlica and Schuster 1969;Wright 1974;Steuter and Wright 1983) and Sporobolus species (Hopkins et al 1948;Christensen 1964;Stinson and Wright 1969;Wright 1980;Rasmussen et al 1986;Higgins et al 1989; but see Schacht and Stubbendieck 1985 for positive fire effects on Sporobolus).…”

A Floristic Inventory and Vegetation Survey of Three Dolomite Prairies in Northeastern Illinois

“…However, the influence of initial grassland species composition is clearly shown in a study by Schacht and Stubbendieck (1985) in the loess hills of Nebraska. These investigators found that reduced cool season herbage yield (mainly Poa pratensis) persisted for two years in tracts where warm season grasses were initially present, but was short-lived on a tract where the warm season component was missing.…”

Effects of dormant- vs. growing-season fire in shortgrass steppe: Biological soil crust and perennial grass responses

“…Four studies, including Anderson et al (1970), Heirman and Wright (1973), Schacht and Stubbendieck (1985), and White and Currie (1983), reported results from spring fires ranging from negative or neutral, to positive responses, over a time frame of 3 months to 16 years (Ford, 1999). Separation of spring burns into early-and latespring categories revealed that early spring (March) burns produced neutral or positive responses, and late-spring burning (May) produced negative results (Anderson et al, 1970;Heirman and Wright, 1973;Ford, 1999).…”

“…Over time, fall burns produced more herbage than did spring burns (White and Currie, 1983). However, a late-spring (April) burn by Schacht and Stubbendieck (1985) showed a positive response by blue grama and a neutral response by buffalograss (Ford, 1999).…”