PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #9: Success Criteria and Monitoring Restoration.
Monday, August 5. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Monitoring fire effects in national parks of the Northern Great Plains.

Wienk, Cody^*,1, Thorstenson, Andy¹, ¹ National Park Service, Hot Springs, SD

ABSTRACT- Prescribed fire is increasingly becoming a tool used by National Park Service resource managers to meet management objectives. A fire monitoring program has been established within the National Park Service to document basic information, to detect trends, to ensure that resource management objectives are met, and to aid in refining parks' fire management programs. This fire monitoring program has been implemented at 10 National Park units in the Northern Great Plains. We sample vegetation plots before prescribed fires to document baseline conditions, shortly after fires to assess fire severity, and during growing seasons up to 20 years after fires to assess short- and long-term fire effects. These monitoring protocols have also been implemented to assess the effects of overstory thinning treatments on understory vegetation. There are currently 130 monitoring plots in the 10 park units. At Badlands National Park, a single fall burn resulted in a greater than 20% increase in relative cover of western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) after two growing seasons. Spring burning for 2 consecutive years at Devils Tower National Monument resulted in a 490% increase in relative cover of sedge species (Carex spp.) and an observed decrease in the cool-season perennial grass, Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). Results of the fire effects monitoring program are compiled on an annual basis and reported to resource and fire managers at Northern Great Plains National Parks.

KEY WORDS: fire effects monitoring, Northern Great Plains, National Park Service, prescribed fire