• IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT
• DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT
• PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE
• DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE
• FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS

IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT:

Fires top-kills mountain snowberry. Although plant survival may be variable, mountain snowberry root crowns usually survive even severe fires [10,32,44,68].

DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT:

Mountain snowberry crowns that are intertwined with surrounding big sagebrush will burn even when their moisture content is relatively high [68].

PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE:

Mountain snowberry sprouts from basal buds at the root crown following fire [10,32,58,66,67]. This species is a weak sprouter [10,42,67], especially after severe fire. Although the majority of plants survive burning and sprouting is reliable, sprout production can be limited initially and may remain so for several years. Recovery rates are variable. Mountain snowberry is usually top-killed but otherwise undamaged by low-severity fire, but may show decreases the first few years after severe fire [32,44]. Even after severe fire, prefire numbers and coverages are usually regained by 15 years [4,36,42,44,68].

DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE:

It is unclear from the literature what part burning season plays in mountain snowberry's highly variable response to fire. On most sites plants survive low severity fires and sprout within the first year [30,32,68].

Fifteen years after a September prescribed burn in big sagebrush/grass habitat in Idaho, mountain snowberry production was nearly equal on light-severity and severely burned sites. Production was greatest on moderate-severity and unburned sites. Postfire production (lbs/acre, air-dry) was [4]:

 

Unburned	Light burn	Moderate burn	Severe burn
6.7	2.6	6.6	3.0

 

Koniak [30] found that in singeleaf pinyon-Utah juniper (Pinus monophylla-Juniperus osteosperma) woodlands of California and Nevada, occurrence of mountain snowberry was significantly higher on 1-year-old August burns than on adjacent unburned woodlands. In Nevada mountain big sagebrush, mountain snowberry plants regained 75% of prefire plant height within 4 years of late summer fires [68].

Mountain snowberry was severely damaged in Wyoming, however, following a late August prescribed burn in a quaking aspen forest. Twelve years after the burn, mountain snowberry was only producing about half the biomass of that being produced prior to the burn. Snowberry biomass production (air-dry, kg/ha) was as follows 3 and 12 years after different burn severities [1,2]:

Prefire        88

Postfire      low       moderate    high
              severity  severity    severity
 
3 years       9         36          7
12 years      48        25          18

FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:

Snowberry species are capable of producing firebrand material. When large mountain snowberry plants are located near fire control lines, they may cause spot fires [42].

Elk browsed mountain snowberry more on burned than unburned quaking aspen forests. Postfire browsing may slow the shrub's recovery time [5,10].

Annual or very frequent fires may be detrimental to mountain snowberry [43].