FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Deschampsia cespitosa | Tufted Hairgrass 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Tufted hairgrass culms and leaves are often killed by fire, though dense
tufts may protect some green biomass during low-severity fire.  Tufted
hairgrass root crowns usually survive all but the most severe fires [25].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Within just a few years tufted hairgrass usually recovers to prefire
levels [25]. 

In the Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming, tufted hairgrass occurs in wet
or dry subalpine meadows that were produced when forests were burned in
1871.  Above 9,800 feet (3,000 m) elevation burned areas remain open for
50 to 100 years after stand-replacing fire.  After a century or more,
the drier meadows usually are covered by young spruce (Picea)-fir
(Abies) forests and tufted hairgrass declines.  However, tufted
hairgrass in wet meadows above 9,800 feet (3,000 m) may remain dominant
for centuries [4].

In the same area, tufted hairgrass is a component of successional tundra
meadow that developed following a severe 1809 crown fire in ribbon
forest [4].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Species: Deschampsia cespitosa | Tufted Hairgrass