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Project ID: 03-1-4-09

Year: 2003

Date Started: 08/26/2003

Date Completed: 08/09/2007

Title: Patch Burning on Grasslands: Effects on Fuels, Fire Behavior, and Fire Spread

Project Proposal Abstract: Using the fire-grazing interaction is a new paradigm of rangeland management (Fuhlendorf and Engle 2001) that simultaneously enhances biological diversity and maintains livestock production on rangelands with a long history of herbivory by large ungulates (i.e., Great Plains grasslands). Traditional rangeland management generally attempts to reduce the heterogeneity inherent in rangelands. Although fuel characteristics, fire behavior, and the influence of fire on invasive species (i.e., Juniperus virginiana) have been described, these descriptions apply to grasslands managed for homogeneity (i.e., uniform fuel beds). Our goal is to quantify the influence of patch burning on fuels and fire behavior where patch burning is used in a landscape approach to managing fuels and reducing wildfire potential in grasslands. Ultimately, our goal is to produce a model that optimizes patch burning to reduce fire spread across grassland landscapes. Patch burning allows free selection by large ungulates among burned and unburned patches within a landscape. Intense grazing within burned patches is rotated across the landscape over several years. Therefore, landscape patches differ in plant composition and live herbaceous and dead fuel accumulated since a patch was burned. The result is a shifting mosaic of altered fuel types that may impede wildfire spread while at the same time may provide greater control of invasive plant species (Juniperus virginiana) and habitat improvement for grassland obligate wildlife. Our evaluation could result in an innovative alternative for managing grassland fuels to reduce wildfire spread while simultaneously enhancing biological diversity. Patch burning allows fine fuels accumulation on patches to be burned (i.e., not recently burned), potentially contributing to more effective woody plant control. These patches are dispersed across the landscape within a matrix of patches that have been more recently burned and have less accumulated fine fuel, which would potentially limit wildfire spread. We will develop technology transfer mechanisms to deliver this technology. This proposal relates to the third element of Task 4 in the AFP 2003-1, that is, to evaluate the impacts of changing fire suppression and fire use policies, and the interaction of fire and other factors (such as grazing, invasive species, etc.) on ecosystem structure and health.

Principal Investigator: David M. Engle

Agency/Organization: Oklahoma State University

Branch or Dept: Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Terrence G. Bidwell	Oklahoma State University	Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management
Co-Principal Investigator	Samuel D. Fuhlendorf	Oklahoma State University	Department of Plant & Soil Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator	David L. Nofziger	Oklahoma State University	Department of Plant & Soil Sciences
Federal Cooperator	John ’Mark’ M. Kaib	FWS-Fish and Wildlife Service	Region 2-Southwest Regional Office

Project Locations

Consortium

Great Plains

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
	1698	Refereed Publication	Landscape Heterogeneity and Fire Behavior: Scale-Dependant Feedback Between Fire and Grazing Processes
	9483	NonRefereed Publication	Restoring Heterogeneity on Rangelands: Ecosystem Management Based on Evolutionary Grazing Patterns

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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