The lesser prairie-chicken is a species of prairie-grouse that has experienced a dramatic population decline during the past two decades. Several reasons have been cited for these recent declines including invasive tree and shrub encroachment on native prairie as well as the loss of natural ecological drivers, including fire. We evaluated the response of lesser prairie-chicken space use and nest site selection in relation to tree encroachment. We found that lesser prairie-chickens utilized areas with less than 2 trees per hectare more frequently than areas with greater than 2 trees per hectare. Additionally we did not detect any lesser prairie-chicken nests in areas with greater than 2 trees per hectare. One way of controlling trees is through the use of prescribed fire. Little is known about how prescribed fire impacts lesser prairie-chicken habitat and space use. We measured vegetation characteristics across a landscape modified by fire and grazing in a patch-burn grazing system to assess the impacts of prescribed fire on lesser prairie-chicken habitat. We also measured vegetation characteristics at lesser prairie-chicken nest sites and paired random locations. We found that patches greater-than-2-years post-fire had 2x taller vegetation than year-of-fire patches. In addition, year-of-fire patches had the greatest bare ground and litter whereas patches greater-than-2-years post-fire had the most grass cover and the least bare ground. Lesser prairie-chicken nesting locations had similar vegetation height and structure to that of patches that were greater-than-2-years post-fire. Nest sites had taller vegetation, greater grass cover, and less bare ground cover than paired random locations. Our findings show that patch-burn grazing helps maintain lesser prairie-chickens nesting habitat and therefore, may be a useful tool for controlling tree encroachment.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.