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Project ID: 00-2-32

Year: 2000

Date Started: 02/12/2000

Date Completed: 09/15/2005

Title: Fire Effects and Fuels Management in Blackbrush Shrublands of the Mojave Desert

Project Proposal Abstract: Invasive annual grasses produce continuous and persistent fine fuels that cause significant fire hazards in the Mojave Desert, where increased fire frequencies threaten natural resources and recreational values. The application of fire, clipping, and herbicides during the spring has been used with mixed success for controlling invasive annual grasses in mostly disturbed sites in the Great Basin Desert, but these control methods have been rarely evaluated in relatively undisturbed wildands or in the Mojave Desert. Variation in the efficacy of these methods among ecosystems indicates that they need to be tested within the Mojave Desert before they are used by land managers there. This proposed study will establish a demonstration study site comparing these three methods for reducing fine fuels and the dominance of invasive annual grasses in previously burned and previously undisturbed creosote bush scmb habitat. The site will be protected by the Bureau of Land Management for at least 7 years to demonstrate the effects of these fuels management techniques and to evaluate their ecological effects. This proposed study will fund monitoring and reporting of the short-term treatment effects during the first post-treatment year, and will establish a protocol for long-term monitoring over multiple year intervals to evaluate the more lasting effects of the treatments. Parallel studies will be conducted by the USGS to evaluate the effects of these management methods on soil nutrients, hydrology, and erodibility. The results of this study will help land managers detennine if the control of fine fuels and invasive annual grasses is possible and cost-efficient in the Mojave Desert.

Principal Investigator: Matthew L. Brooks

Agency/Organization: USGS-Geological Survey

Branch or Dept: WERC-Yosemite Field Station

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Todd C. Esque	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Las Vegas Field Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Melissa Trader	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Las Vegas Field Station
Collaborator/Contributor	Tim Duck	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Collaborator/Contributor	Richard Franklin	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	California Desert District
Collaborator/Contributor	Tom Patterson	NPS-National Park Service	Joshua Tree National Park
Federal Cooperator	Matthew L. Brooks	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Yosemite Field Station

Project Locations

Consortium

California

Southwest

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	7434	Refereed Publication	Creosotebush, Blackbrush, and Interior Chaparral Shrublands
	3310	NonRefereed Publication	Plant Diversity and Fire Effects in Blackbrush Shrublands
	3308	NonRefereed Publication	Plant Community Patterns in Unburned and Burned Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) Shrublands in the Mojave Desert

Supporting Documents

The following supporting documents are available for this project.

Brief

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