Use of prescribed fire in ecological restoration: Lessons from Chittenden Meadow, Skagit Valley, British Columbia

Fire suppression results in dramatic structural and compositional changes in many vegetation communities. The use of prescribed fire to restore a community to historical conditions may be unsuccessful if the trade-off between adequate fire severity and mitigation of fire risk is too conservative. Managers need detailed information on fire behaviour and vegetation response to effectively make decisions about the trade-off between risks and effects. In this report I describe the immediate effects of a prescribed fire in a meadow that ha s experienced tree and shrub encroachment due to fire suppression and climatic factors. Less than three months after the fire, the meadow community as a whole showed little response to the treatment. Of the life form groups and culturally important plants that I examined, only herbs and grasses showed significant burn effects. Species richness was unaffected by the burn.