Sieg, Carolyn. 1994. Evaluation of Invasion of Non-native Plants on the Shirttail Burn and Potential Methods for Controlling Non-native Plants.

Abstract

In April 1991, the Shirttail wildfire burned into Wind Cave National Park. Approximately 445 ha were burned. The objective of this project was to examine invasion rates of non-native plant species in the burned area. A total of 54 transects were established in 1992 in the area burned by the Shirttail burn: 27 in grasslands and 27 in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands. The grassland transects were located in areas where the fire intensity was judged to be relatively low. The ponderosa pine transects encompassed severely burned sideslopes of drainages and hilltops within the boundaries of the Shirttail burn. Over 90% of the tree canopies were consumed by the fire on severely burned sites. An additional 16 transects were established on moderately and lightly burned areas on the Shirttail Burn in the summer of 1993. Moderately burned areas were those in which 10-50% of the tree canopies had burned. Lighlty-burned areas were those where <10% of the tree canoopies were consumed. On each transect, plant canopy cover and frequency of occurrence of individual plant species were estimated in 20 to 50 0.1m2 quadrats per transect.