LLL prescribed burn- One month post burn

It's been a dry month; however, we did get 0.99 in spread out over three days last week. It doesn't make up for the hole we're in, but it is enough to start to see some response on the burn unit.

Late summer fires tend to promote forb growth, and suppress warm season grasses to a certain extent. This is because warm season grasses have just poured a tremendous amount of energy into reproduction (flower and seed growth) and removing the energy collection portions of the plant (the leaves) doesn't allow the plant to store much energy for winter, and thus, next spring's growth. We burned in late July, so while warm season grasses might take a slight hit, there should be a good balance between forbs and grass regeneration.

ONE MONTH PHOTO POINTS

Still doesn't look like much response from the photo points, but that spot is at the highest elevation, and some of the poorest soil. If you look closely, you can see some forbs.

Grass regrowth

Scarlet globemallow ( Sphaeralcea coccinea) responding

Mesquite

Fire is part of what kept mesquite density low on the Llano Estacado. Regular fire supresses and can kill mesquite; however, mesquite older than about three years, resprout mesquite, and mesquite that has had its bud zone buried is largely immune to normal fire.

Example:
Looks dead

Look closer:

It is already resprouting.

We set back quite a bit mesquite on this fire, but it had been seven years since the last fire in this pasture. So, some of it escaped death.

There are also some new mesquite sprouts showing up after the rain. This is too be expected; fire is not a one time use thing (no management tool is for that matter).

There were quite a few other forbs beginning to emerge. I couldn't identify all of them, but buffalo gourd, scarlet globe mallow, ragweed, , silverleaf nightshade and several others were coming up. If we get our fall rain, it should really take off before winter.

Speaking of taking off, I'm about to hit the busy part of my year, so I probably will not update the post fire monitoring until winter, and then perhaps once spring green-up begins.

Posted on Αύγουστος 22, 2018 0955 ΜΜ by rowdius