FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Ribes cereum | Wax Currant 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire usually kills wax currant [6,7,11].

In Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, low-severity prescription
fires conducted during the spring and fall of 1979 resulted in decreases
in Ribes spp. during postfire years 1 and 2.  Weather conditions were as
follows [3]:

                wind speed      temperature     relative
                mi/h (km/h)     deg F (deg C)   humidity (%)

fall burn       10 (16)         58 (14.4)       45
spring burn      5 (8)          57 (13.9)       32

Prefire and postfire values for Ribes spp. on experimental (burned) and
control (unburned) plots were as follows [3]:

                                Prefire         Postfire 1      Postfire 2

Number of plants (density)
        experimental            299             112             73
        control                  21              27             25

Mean max. height (cm)
        experimental             34.6            18.4           25.3
        control                  37.2            34.6*          41.0

Mean max. crown width (cm)
        experimental             32.2            16.5           20.1
        control                  33.9            37.4*          35.6*

* indicates that value for control plot was significantly (p<.05)
  greater than value for experimental plot.  


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Wax currant seedlings establish after fire.  After low-severity,
prescribed fire in a California red fir (Abies magnifica) forest of
King's Canyon National Park, California, wax currant seedlings
established; there were no shrubs on the site before the fire [23].  In
Stanislaus National Forest, California, a large and vigorous population
of Ribes spp., including two or three wax currant plants, "promptly
developed" after a 1.5-acre, human-caused fire in August of 1936 [32].
In Winema National Forest, Oregon, Burton and Black [10] reported the
presence of wax currant in early, seral postfire vegetation dominated by
annual and perennial grasses and annual forbs.  Prefire vegetation was
characterized as a ponderosa pine/bitterbrush (Purshia
tridentata)/needlegrass (Stipa occidentalis) community.

In east-central Idaho, Peek and others [51] observed wax currant
sprouting 2 years after a low-severity prescribed fire.  


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
In the Blacktail Hills of central Montana, the crude protein content of
wax currant twigs and foliage increased by 4.2 to 9.8 percent after
spring prescribed fires of varying fireline intensities [22].

In north-central Colorado, fire treatments applied with a flamegun
during the growing season decreased the production of annual growth in
wax currant for 2 years following treatment.  Treatments applied during
the dormant season had little or no effect on wax currant production
[48].

A wildfire burned through mixed pine-fir forests in the Sierra Nevada in
1960.  Effects of postfire treatments are described by Bock and others
[5].  Little or no management action took place after fire on control
plots.  On "plantation" plots, brush and dead trees were piled and
burned, Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) seedlings were planted in postfire
year 5, and herbicide was applied to kill shrubs in postfire years 11
and 12.  In postfire year 15, the plantation plots had a significantly
greater (p<0.001) number of wax currant plants than the control plots.

Shelter and food for wildlife and forage for livestock can be improved
with prescribed fire in habitats where wax currant occurs.  Fire
prescriptions for grasslands invaded by Douglas-fir in west-central and
southwestern Montana are described [17].  Fire prescriptions for
ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas-fir communities in the
Intermountain West are also described [50].

Related categories for Species: Ribes cereum | Wax Currant