Recent increases in number and size of wildfires in the Great Plains have demonstrated the need for implementation of fuels reduction practices. Prescribed fire is commonly used to reduce fuel loads in the region; however, rapid vegetation growth may limit the utility of fire as an effective treatment. Pyric herbivory is the disturbance regime created when fire and grazing interact, and often maintains areas of short vegetative regrowth. We evaluated the responses of fuel loads, rate of fuel accumulation, and simulated fire characteristics (flame length, rate of spread) in patches managed using fire only and pyric herbivory practices at four sites in the southern Great Plains. We measured fuel characteristics in patches with different times since fire at each site to create custom dynamic fuel models in the BehavePlus modeling system. Fuels in pyric herbivory patches never exceeded 4,500 kg per hectare, while fire-only patches exceeded 6,000 kg per hectare within 24 months. Simulated flame lengths and rates of spread were lower in pyric herbivory patches than in fire-only patches. Pyric herbivory was also associated with reduced flame lengths in all simulated weather conditions. Rate of spread was strongly influenced by time since fire and treatment, with values in fire-only treatments as much as 3x higher than in pyric herbivory treatments. Overall, pyric herbivory reduced the occurrence of extreme fire behavior, extending the amount of time after treatment that standard wildland firefighting techniques remain effective.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.