The 2011 Wallow fire burned 538,000 acres of the White Mountains primarily in east central Arizona. The White Mountains contain fragmented, open park-like, high elevation (>7700 ft) ecosystems called subalpine montane grasslands. These systems are one of the least studied ecosystems in Arizona. The Wallow fire provides an excellent opportunity to study the post-fire recovery of vegetation in subalpine montane grasslands. Nine macroplots (300 ft X 100 ft) were measured between 2011 and 2013. Measurements included production, total canopy cover, dry weight rank, frequency, and line point intercept. Individual macroplots were compared over three years to determine trend. Preliminary results show that production and total canopy cover did not vary between years, suggesting the low fire severity in subalpine montane grasslands did not result in catastrophic damage to the ecosystem. At the community level, graminoid species by weight were greater in 2012 compared to 2011 and 2013, suggesting nutrients released during the fire and/or the reduction of litter was initially favorable to graminoid species, but this effect is only short-term. At the species level, fire affected different species in different ways. For example, Blepharoneuron tricholepis (pine dropseed) abundance was stable or increasing on most macroplots between 2011 and 2013 while Muhlenbergia montana (mountain muhly) abundance showed a gradual to drastic decline since the fire on most macroplots. Studying the vegetation recovery at the community and plant level in areas burned by the Wallow fire allows for a greater understanding of complex subalpine montane grasslands ecosystems.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.