FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Bromus ciliatus | Fringed Brome 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fringed brome is probably top-killed by most fires, as are most grasses.
In northwestern Wyoming, fringed brome was "harmed" by fires of moderate
and high intensity.  Moderate intensity fires killed most surface
vegetation but did not remove all litter and duff and killed less than
90 percent of mature aspens.  After 3 years, fringed brome did not show
"appreciable recovery" from the fires [6].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Frequency and cover of fringed brome increased the third year following
a spring prescribed fire in a western snowberry shrub community in
central Alberta.  The increase was greater on the unburned plot than the
burned plot [5].  

At Breakneck Ridge, Wyoming, a prescribed fire was conducted on August
29, 1974.  Fringed brome and slender wheatgrass were the two most
abundant grasses on the site.  Fire intensities were classed as follows:
light (<20% of vegetation consumed and very few overstory trees killed),
moderate (21-80% of fine fuels and lesser vegetation consumed by fire
and up to 90% of the mature trees killed), and high (81-100% of fine
fuels consumed and over 90% of overstory trees killed) [6,64].  On the
moderate-intensity burn site, grass cover decreased from 15 to 10
percent by postfire year 3; on the high-intensity burn site, a 66
percent drop occurred by postfire year 3.  Fringed brome was affected
most by the fire.  By the end of postfire year 3, fringed brome had not
shown an appreciable recovery on moderate or high intensity burn sites
[64,65].  Production (air-dry kg/ha) of fringed brome before burning and
in postfire year 3 on plots burned at three levels of intensity were as
follows [6,64]:

 before burning  light intensity   moderate intensity   high intensity 
  
     217              267                 181                 87

In southern Ontario, a low-intensity prescribed surface fire in an aspen
(Populus spp.) woodland was conducted on two plots on May 8, 1972 and
two more were burned on April 24, 1973.  All plots were sampled in
August of 1973.  Fringed brome only occurred on the control sites, at
2.5 percent frequency [54].
 


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Grass fires in Douglas-fir/Arizona fescue habitats of which fringed
brome is a member reduced the density of conifer seedlings and
maintained grass cover, although specific effects on fringed brome were
not described [20].  

Aspen/fringed brome stands in subalpine forests of Utah have a moderate
probability of being successfully prescribed burned, but only if
livestock grazing is deferred for at least one season before burning.
Postfire communities "quickly resemble prefire ones" [48].

Related categories for Species: Bromus ciliatus | Fringed Brome