OCR Text |
Show Range fires usefull in promoting grasses Although fire is a threat to life and property when uncontrolled, it is also a useful tool to promote grass growth and increase forage production for use by domestic livestock and wildlife. The fire on Diamond Mountain last week in many ways was good for the range, said soil conservationists, Patricia Vanuga. It removed a lot of the older sagebrush plants and opened up the community for the grasses. In some cases it will cause problems for ranchers ran-chers that will be short of feed this fall, and could accelerate erosion in areas that are steep. Controlled burning has been used as a tool to manage big sagebrush, low sagebrush, pinyon pine and Utah juniper. However, once an area is burned, followup management of the land is necessary to insure vigorous regrowth of the grass plants. In some instances grass species are not present at the time of burning, if this is the case, reseeding of the range will be necessary, since a native seed source is not present. If grasses are present at the time of burning, an appropriate grazing practice must follow the burn. The most important thing is to eliminate grazing from the burned range immediately following the burn and through the next spring and summer. This is important because livestock will generally concentrate on these areas recently burned, since the forage is more palatable and more completely available, Patricia Vanuga said. Further, after a burn the grasses are set back and their vigor is low, grazing at this time could easily damage these plants. If the livestock is allowed to graze these areas, the plants will become less vigorous and therefore reduce the potential carrying capacity of an area in following years. For further evaluation of burned rangelands and information on rangeland management, contact Patricia Vanuga, Range Conservationist, Con-servationist, Soil Conservation Service 789-2100. |