To determine the vegetation response to fallprescribed burning at Mima Mounds Natural Area, Washington, I measured the frequency of five native and six nonnative prairie species over the
1981992 time period. I evaluated the effects of two different seasons of burn through systematic
random sampling of 100400 quadrats. These were placed within unburned, summer burned and
fall burned experimental areas. Each species response was interpreted by Chi square analysis over
the entire period. A conceptual model is developed that characterizes the expected short term (<5
years) response of each species to fall or summer burning. Fall burning was generally observed to
be less damaging to native species, especially the dormant native grass Festuca idahoensis. Some
nonnative species such as Hypochaeris radicata and Holcus lanatus showed a slight (statistically
insignificant) decrease under a fall burning regime.
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