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Project ID: 01C-3-1-02

Year: 2002

Date Started: 07/26/2002

Date Completed: 01/11/2007

Title: Armells Creek Prescribed Fire Demonstration Project

Project Proposal Abstract: Relatively little is known about the role of fire in prairie savanna ecosystems like those found along the Missouri and Yellowstone drainages of central and eastern Montana and the Little Missouri drainage of northeastern Wyoming and western North Dakota. Without such information land managers must rely on professional judgment and opinion when developing prescribed fire plans. This limitation was readily apparent when Bureau of Land Management fuels specialists began developing a prescribed fire plan to reach rangeland and riparian improvement goals established under the Armells Creek Watershed Environmental Assessment. Efforts to avoid costly mistakes and protect existing forest, shrub and wildlife resources prompted the BLM planners to contact Montana State University researchers and extension specialists for information about possible outcomes from prescribed fires. After several site visits it became apparent that landform and ecological conditions where such that a controlled study of the effects of fire on a representative section of prairie savanna could be accomplished during the Armells Creek restoration project. The Armells site also provides the opportunity to test the hypothesis that conifer encroachment limits the level of riparian area improvement that can be achieved through intensive livestock management and vegetation restoration projects. Another advantage to the Armells Creek Watershed is its close proximity to the BLM's Lewistown office. This provides an excellent opportunity to develop a demonstration site that can be used to illustrate the environmental outcome of a fuels treatment practice (Task 1 of the JFSP). Equally important is the potential to apply what is learned at the Armells site to planning efforts in other parts of the Missouri and Yellowstone drainages. This proposal seeks support from the Joint Fire Sciences program to develop the ecological baseline for the long term (six year) monitoring effort and to make initial measurements of browse mortality and the level of change in conifer density and canopy cover immediately following the burn. Support from JFSP will enable the Lewistown BLM and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station to use their funds for recording changes 3 and six years after the prescribed fire.

Principal Investigator: Clayton B. Marlow

Agency/Organization: Montana State University

Branch or Dept: Department of Animal & Range Sciences

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Collaborator/Contributor	Joe Frazier	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Lewistown Field Office
Collaborator/Contributor	James Knight	Montana State University	Cooperative Extension Service
Collaborator/Contributor	Mitch Maycox	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Lewistown Field Office
Collaborator/Contributor	Melanie Miller	University of Montana	Department of Forest Management
Collaborator/Contributor	Brad Sauer	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Eastern Montana Fire Zone
Collaborator/Contributor	Jennifer Walker	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Lewistown Field Office
Federal Fiscal Representative	Mary R. Clark	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Montana-Dakotas State Office

Project Locations

Consortium

Northern Rockies

Northwest

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.")

There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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