Four studies were conducted. First, mountain big sagebrush communities were burned at Lava Beds National Monument, California, and The Crooked River National Grassland, Oregon. In two years at Lava Beds, basal cover of Idaho fescue in one community and Thur- ber's needlegrass in one of three communities did not recover. Basal cover of bluebunch wheatgrass and Sandberg's bluegrass re- covered or increased above prefire levels at the expense of Idaho fescue and Thurber's needlegrass. Bunchgrasses recovery was based on height and production which increased to equal or exceed prefire levels. At Crooked River, height and production of bluebunch wheat- grass were much higher than prefire levels, but basal cover remain- ed extremely low after two years. Prescribed burning recommenda- tions were presented. Secondly, after hot and cool in situ propane barrel burns, mountain big sagebrush seed emergence in the greenhouse was stimu- lated. Basin big sagebrush seed emergence was reduced by both fire intensities. Emergence was inverse to fire intensity for both sub- species. Wyoming big sagebrush was not affected by fire. Both in- tensities reduced emergence of most herbaceous species from mountain big sagebrush dominated soils. Hot fires were required to reduce emergence of the few herbaceous species affected by fire on basin and especially Wyoming big sagebrush dominated soils. A trend of in- creasing fire resistance with increasing site severity was evident. Thirdly, individual and area fuel loading equations were de- veloped for each component of fuel of the three subspecies of big sagebrush. R2 values for individual shrub equations ranged from .36 to .96. Line intercept cover, the number, and the height of intercepted shrubs were used to estimate area fuel loadings with R2 values ranging from .42 to .84. This method of estimating area fuel loading provides relatively high precision at reduced cost. Fourthly, basal cover and leaf length or plant height were used to estimate bunchgrass production. R2 values for burned plant equations were higher (.66-.87) than R2 values for unburned- ungrazed plant equations (.35-.85). Basal cover accounted for at least 70 percent of the variation in Thurber's needlegrass, burned Idaho fescue, and burned bluebunch wheatgrass production. Comparisons based on indirect estimation yielded results comparable to clipping.

Summarizes recent literature on the effects of fire on sagebrush-grass vegetation. Also outlines procedures and considerations for planning and conducting prescribed fires and monitoring effects. Includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the fire-sagebrush-grass literature published since 1980.

Pioneers traveling along the Oregon Trail from western Nebraska, through Wyoming and southern Idaho and into eastern Oregon, referred to their travel as an 800 mile journey through a sea of sagebrush, mainly big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata). Today approximately 50 percent of the sagebrush sea has given way to agriculture, cities and towns, and other human developments. What remains is further fragmented by range management practices, creeping expansion of woodlands, alien weed species, and the historic view that big sagebrush is a worthless plant. Two ideas are promoted in this report: (1) big sagebrush is a nursing mother to a host of organisms that range from microscopic fungi to large mammals, and (2) many range management practices applied to big sagebrush ecosystems are not science based.

This paper examines the scientific merits of eight axioms of range or vegetative management pertaining to big sagebrush. These axioms are: (1) Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp.wyomingensis) does not naturally exceed 10 percent canopy cover and mountain big sagebrush (A.t.ssp.vaseyana) does not naturally exceed 20 percent canopy cover; (2) As big sagebrush canopy cover increases over 12 to15 percent, bare ground increases and perennial grass cover decreases; (3) Removing, controlling, or killing big sagebrush will results in a two or three or more fold increase in perennial grass production; (4) Nothing eats it; (5) Biodiversity increases with removing, controlling, thinning, or killing of big sagebrush; (6) Mountain big sagebrush evolved in an environment with a mean fire interval of 20 to 30 years; (7) Big sagebrush is an agent of allelopathy; and (8) Big sagebrush is a highly competitive, dominating, suppressive plant species.

Currently, the of lack information on shrub reestablishment following fire and the wide variability in rates of recovery have lead to uncertainty in using prescribed burning as a management tool in the mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle) alliance. This study examined the recovery of shrub density and percent canopy cover of mountain big sagebrush and other associated shrub species across 16 large fires, with between 4-49 years of recovery, in southeastern Oregon, northwestern Nevada, and northeastern California. Sagebrush recovery within the interior of these large (400 to 4000 ha each), uniform burns resulted from existing soil seed pools and in the absence of seed rain from adjacent unburned plants. We sampled 175 sites with over 31 km of line intercept and 6.3 ha of shrub density plots. On four of the fires, Badger Mountain (6 years since fire), Miller Canyon (10 yrs), Kiger (15 yrs) and Murdock (41 yrs) we further explored the chronosequence of shrub reestablishment by harvesting over 1400 mountain big sagebrush and 450 bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata (Pursh) D.C.) plants from interior locations where post-fire seed sources were limited to soil seed pools and unclaimed rodent seed caches. Shrub crowns were prepared in the lab and aged by at least two separate technicians using binocular dissecting microscopes. In our study area, the median % live canopy cover of mountain big sagebrush returned to 20-25% within 32-36 years after the fire event. Linear regression analysis showed that median % live canopy cover increased 3.429 times (3.932 to 2.990, 90% CI, p-value 0.001) with doubling of years since fire. Similarly, mean sagebrush densities increased 0.227 shrubs / m2 (0.267 to 0.188, 90% CI, p-value 0.001) with each doubling of years since fire. Years since fire explained 57% to 36% of the cover and density variation respectively and variation increased as recovery time increased. Shrub chronology suggests that where seed is limited to surviving soil seed pools, shrub reestablishment following fire occurred in three phases: Phase One) the opportunity for immediate shrub establishment from surviving soil seed pools, Phase Two) a lull in seedling establishment resulting from depleted soil seed pools, and Phase Three) the beginning of modal establishment from newly established on-site seed sources. The success or failure of soil seed pools to establish shrub densities during Phase One probably explains some of the variability in the formulas describing the rate of % shrub cover and density recovery following fire. Both regression analysis and the chronology data emphasize the importance of shrub reestablishment in the first 3-4 years following the fire (Phase One) in influencing the rate of shrub recovery. It would appear that quantifying sagebrush density and % cover after the first 3-4 years following fire will aid land managers in developing long-term, landscape level fire management plans by estimating future shrub recovery.