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Research Project Summary: Use of prescribed fire to manage hawthorn and speckled alder in a Pennsylvania floodplain

• RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY CITATION
• STUDY LOCATION
• SITE DESCRIPTION
• PREFIRE PLANT COMMUNITY
• PLANT PHENOLOGY
• FIRE SEASON AND SEVERITY CLASSIFICATION
• FIRE DESCRIPTION
• FIRE EFFECTS ON TARGET SPECIES
• FIRE MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
• REFERENCES

Common names are used throughout this summary. For a list of the common and scientific names of species discussed in this summary and for links to FEIS Species Reviews, see the Appendix.

Source:
The information in this Research Project Summary comes from the following paper:

Burgason, Barry N. 1976. Prescribed burning for management of hawthorn and alder. New York Fish and Game Journal. 23(2): 160-169 [1].

Four vegetative types were recognized at the time of the study:

• Open (59% of area): Individual speckled alders and hawthorns <4 ft (1 m) tall, with grass and goldenrod species dominating the understory
• Speckled alder (26% of area): Dense stands mostly more than 8 feet (2 m) tall, with sparse understory
• Hawthorn (2% of area): Dense stands of hawthorn 5 to 8 feet (2 m) tall, with sparse understory
• Swale (13% of area): Intermittent stream channels filled with water during spring and periods of high water but generally dry during summer, dominated by bulrush

The study area occurs in a riparian zone in the northeastern United States. Very little is known about historical fire regimes in this plant community type.

Burning was conducted in the early afternoon of 13 April 973. Fuels were "quite dry", but emerging forbs in the understory were moist enough to have "a dampening effect" on fire behavior. The air temperature was 70 F (20 °C), and wind was approximately 5 to10 miles/hour (8-16 km/hr) from the northwest. A drip torch was used to ignite the upwind corner of the study area. Drip-torch ignition continued completely around the perimeter and then crisscrossed the interior of the area. The fire burned readily through the open vegetation type (type 1), but the dense vegetation types (2 and 3) burned mainly along the edges.

Fire top-killed 55% of sampled speckled alder stems and 60% of hawthorn stems. The 2 species responded similarly to fire: All stems less than 0.4 inch (1.0 cm) basal diameter were top-killed. Top-kill was greater than 60% for stems up to 1.2 inch (3.0 cm) basal diameter. Less than half of stems larger than 1.2 inch (3.0 cm) basal diameter were top-killed. Stems in dense stands seemed less likely to suffer top-kill than stems in open areas:

Within 9 months of the prescribed fire, most burned stems of both speckled alder and hawthorn had sprouted near the base of the stem, at or within 2 inches (5 cm) of the soil surface.

All top-killed hawthorn stems sprouted, and no unburned stems sprouted. Top-killed stems produced an average of 4.6 sprouts, with an average basal diameter of 0.1 inch (3 mm) and an average height of 13 inches (32 cm). Cottontails browsed 83.6% of hawthorn sprouts within 9 months of the burn.

Sprouting in speckled alder was not related to fire, occurring on burned and unburned stems at approximately the same rate (90%). Sampled stems produced an average of 8 to 10 sprouts, with basal diameters ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 inch (3-12 mm) and heights ranging from 9 to 47 inches (22-120 cm). Twelve percent of speckled alders were browsed within 9 months of the fire by either white-tailed deer or cottontails.

REFERENCE:

1. Burgason, Barry N. 1976. Prescribed burning for management of hawthorn and alder. New York Fish and Game Journal. 23(2): 160-169. [14317]