Monitoring Report Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

Forder, Missy

The area consists of seven fields for a total of 130 acres. 50 acres were burned on March 14, 2008. The remaining acres were burned on March 18, 2008, except for the moon field which was not completed due to weather conditions. These fields are usually bush-hogged by park maintenance once a year. A new technique was started in the summer of ’07, to bush hog the woody growth in the Landrum and Middle fields at least 2 times, so as to stress the shrubby trees repeatedly, so as to kill them. This will be repeated in ’08, and if necessary, ‘09 The purposes of the burn are to reduce brushy fuels, open up and maintain vistas, and promote the growth of native tall grasses so that park maintenance will no longer need to use time, equipment, and fuel to maintain these open fields. Furthermore, this will allow park visitors to get a feeling for the battlefield as it was during the Civil War. The area to be burned is located in the Spotsylvania Courthouse Unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The unit is partially surrounded by blacktop road and is fuel model 1 and 3. The area consists of warm season native grasses, cool season exotic grasses, and shrub/scrub to a height of 2-4 feet. The fields had not progressed as far along in green up as the same time last year. The hazel alders (Alnus serrulata) were not in bloom and the mixed hardwood forest surrounding the unit was at 5-7% of green-up. Approximatley, 15% of the shortest grasses were green and a few Cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) could be heard in some of the wet areas of the fields. A few cherry trees (Prunus serotina) and pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) were observed to be in bloom while driving to the prescribed burn.