Northern Great Plains fire ecology program review: 1997-2007

Wienk, Cody; Thorstenson, Andy; Freeman, Jon; Swanson, Dan

The Northern Great Plains (NGP) Fire Ecology program provides fire ecology support for ten national park units in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. These include Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site (FOUS), Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO), Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site (KNRI), Badlands National Park (BADL), Jewel Cave National Monument (JECA), Mount Rushmore National Memorial (MORU), Wind Cave National Park (WICA), Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL), Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO), and Devils Tower National Monument (DETO).From 1997 to 2007, more than 46,000 acres were treated with prescribed fire and mechanical fuels reduction projects in NGP parks. This report presents results and analyses completed by the NGP Fire Ecology program relating to these fuels projects. AGFO, JECA, and FOUS are not included in this report because little or no fuels work has occurred in these parks.This report is organized by park. Each park section begins with a description of the monitoring units (vegetation types) that have been a part of the monitoring program. Next are a table and map of all fuels projects that occurred in the respective park between 1997 and 2007. This is followed with a table and map of all fire monitoring plots in the park as of 2007. The bulk of each section is comprised of the monitoring results. These are presented first for each prescribed fire unit, then for each monitoring type, and finally in a park-wide data summary. Results are given in bar graphs and tables. If three or more plots are included in the analysis, standard error bars are included on the graph. For prescribed fire units and monitoring types, results are presented first by vegetation lifeform, then by dominant genera or species. Tables include pre- and post-treatment data as well as percent change in the variable of interest. The park-wide summary includes cover of native and non-native species, and a graphical representation showing relative cover of native and non-native species over time. The last page of each section includes a graph of annual precipitation at the park from 1997 to 2007.The individual park sections are followed by a multi-park summary. Data from several parks were combined to summarize trends across the entire plot network. These analyses were completed covering broad vegetation groups including native prairie, non-native grasslands, and ponderosa pine forest. At this broad level, it was only practical to summarize the data by vegetation lifeform. We also included a summary of vegetation cover (i.e. lifeform), of all plots in the network that have been treated with prescribed fire.The final section of the report includes our general observations and recommendations. We did not include much interpretation of the data in the park or multi-park sections, but rather provided our overall interpretations in the final section. They include our most interesting and surprising observations, our successes, and our challenges.Over the past 10 years, many hours were spent collecting, entering, analyzing, and summarizing these data. We hope that this information provides a baseline from which the program can move into the next decade of fire monitoring in the parks of the Northern Great Plains.

Northern Great Plains fire ecology program review: 1997-2007

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