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Wildfire Prevention - Invasives as the Enemy

Wildfire Prevention - Invasives as the Enemy. Steven O. Link, PhD (Botany) Native Plant Landscaping and Restoration LLC 4604 E. Robin Ct. West Richland, WA 99353 509-948-0054 stevenlink@me.com.

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Wildfire Prevention - Invasives as the Enemy

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  1. Wildfire Prevention - Invasives as the Enemy Steven O. Link, PhD (Botany) Native Plant Landscaping and Restoration LLC 4604 E. Robin Ct. West Richland, WA 99353 509-948-0054 stevenlink@me.com

  2. Westside and Eastside - Invasives contribute to fuel loads. Learn ways to mitigate the impacts and have healthier range and forest lands!

  3. I will discuss two invasive species and a disease. • Bromus tectorum – Cheatgrass • Cytisus scoparius – Scotch Broom • Phytophthora ramorum - Sudden oak death

  4. Bromus tectorum – Cheatgrass

  5. Acknowledgement This work was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program. The work was done in cooperation with the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Special thanks are given to Randy Hill for help defining the questions and for continued technical support.

  6. Bromus tectorum cover mapping and fire risk Effect of herbicide and herbicide concentration on Elymus wawawaiensis establishment in the shrub-steppe Management of fuel loading in the shrub-steppe: Responses six, seven, and eight years after treatments Fire risk in replanted bunchgrass communities

  7. Bromus tectorum cover mapping and fire risk

  8. Bromus tectorum infestation at the Saddle Mountain element of the Hanford Reach National Monument

  9. High Bromus tectorum fuel load

  10. Low Bromus tectorum fuel load

  11. Lack of continuous fuel limits fire

  12. Experimental Design The fire risk experiment was in plant communities that spanned the range of B. tectorum cover. Bromus tectorum cover was grouped into five classes. Each replicate is comprised of 8 to 18 plots in the three lowest B. tectorum cover classes and 2 to 6 plots at the two highest cover classes. A replicate is a collection of plots where the risk of fire was determined as the proportion of plots that burned. Each class has four replicates. We used 176 square plots, 10 m on a side. Two hundred twenty six plots, 10 m on a side, were used to related B. tectorum cover to color band intensity.

  13. Conclusions • Bromus tectorum cover can be mapped using aerial color band reflectance photos taken in late summer. • Based on the B. tectorum cover map and therelationship between B. tectorum cover and fire risk, fire risk can now be mapped.

  14. Maps showing risk areas in Washington

  15. There are none.

  16. Effect of herbicide and herbicide concentration on Elymus wawawaiensis establishment in the shrubsteppe

  17. Field site at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge

  18. Prescribed Burn

  19. Herbicide Application

  20. Bunchgrass Drill Seeding Elymus wawawaiensis (Snake River wheatgrass, Secar cultivar) was drill seeded at a rate of about 7 lb. acre-1 on Feb. 19, 2003. Drill rows were 0.3 m apart.

  21. Roundup - 2 oz/acre

  22. Plateau - 2 oz/acre

  23. Plateau - 4 oz/acre

  24. Plateau - 8 oz/acre

  25. Management of fuel loading in the shrub-steppe: Responses six, seven, and eight years after treatments

  26. Our objective was to determine if our strategy to reduce Bromus tectorum cover and thus fire risk is sustainable after implementation. We tested three hypotheses reporting results for 2008, 2009, and 2010. Hypothesis 1: Bunchgrasses established in 2003 will show an increasing degree of B. tectorum control over three years (2008, 2009, 2010). Hypothesis 2: Native species richness and cover in Plateau plots will not be different from controls 6, 7, and 8 years after treatment. Hypothesis 3: Alien species cover in Plateau plots will not be different from controls 6, 7, and 8 years after treatment. We monitored populations, flowering, and size of established bunchgrasses. We documented new E. wawawaiensis arising from self-seeding.

  27. Figure 1. Eighteen years after drill seeding, E. wawawaiensis, results in near elimination of B. tectorum.

  28. Figure 4. Alien species cover from 2004 through 2010. The slope of the linear regression over time was significantly (p = 0.0005) greater than zero.

  29. Figure 10. The relationship between E. wawawaiensis canopy volume and the interference distance with B. tectorum.

  30. Figure 7. Elymus wawawaiensis 8 years after seeding showing senescence (gray tillers) with remaining green tillers mostly near the edge.

  31. Figure 8. Mean and predicted % senescent plants (± 1 sem) in the imazapic seeded plots.

  32. Figure 9. Gray colored senescing E. wawawaiensis seeded in 1986 near the study area in 2009.

  33. Figure 11. Relation between planted bunchgrass density and B. tectorum cover.

  34. Fire risk in replanted bunchgrass communities

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