• FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS
• POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:

Susceptibility to fire is related to fire severity, frequency, and season [107]. Crowns are characterized by coarse stems that tend to persist from year to year. During burning, densely packed stubble accumulations insulate perennating buds located near the ground surface [60,82]. Reductions in plant vigor are more long lasting following growing-season burns than dormant-season burns. Postburn recovery rates decline the further into the growing season plants are burned [12,98]. Where reduced fire frequencies have produced large-diameter bunches with heavy litter build-ups, survival may be severely inhibited, as crowns tend to continue burning long after passage of the flame front [6,126]. Antos and others [6] suggest that fire frequencies in the range of 5 to 10 years may best maintain rough fescue.

Fire regimes: In parts of Saskatchewan, presettlement fire intervals in plains rough fescue communities were estimated at 2-6 or 5-10 years [92]. Barrett [14] estimates presettlement fire free intervals of 10 to 18 years in ponderosa pine rough fescue communities in Idaho. Late summer or autumn lightning fires may have encouraged the growth of rough fescue in Oregon [4]. Grazed areas generally hamper fire spread, and intense use by livestock may have greatly restricted fire spread in rough fescue grasslands [10].

The following table provides fire return intervals for plant communities in which rough fescue is common. To learn more about the fire regimes in specific communities in which rough fescue occurs, refer to the FEIS summary for dominant species in those communities, under "Fire Ecology or Adaptations." 

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [103]:

Related categories for SPECIES: Festuca altaica | Rough Fescue