ARS | Publication request: Prescribed-fire research at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwestern Idaho

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 4, 2003
Publication Date: January 24, 2004
Citation: Hardegree, S.P., Pierson, F.B., and Clark, P.E. 2004. Prescribed-fire research at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwestern Idaho. 57th Annual Meeting, Society for Range Management, CD-ROM abstract #127.

Technical Abstract: The Northwest Watershed Research Center has initiated a landscape-scale, prescribed-fire research program at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) in southwestern Idaho. This program was initiated in 2001 in cooperation with the private-land owners at RCEW, the Bureau of Land Management Lower Snake River District and Owyhee Field Office, Idaho Department of Lands, and other ARS research locations in the sagebrush-steppe vegetation type (Burns, OR; Dubois, ID; Cheyenne, WY). The objectives of this research program are to assess prescribed-fire impacts on vegetation, soil, and water resources, post-fire grazing management, weed response, and the efficacy of fire treatments for fuels management and juniper control. The first in a series of four prescribed fires was conducted in September 2002. Additional prescribed fires are planned for 2004, 2005 and 2008. In the next year, a research and management plan will be developed to put the mountain-sage zone at RCEW on a 20-year fire cycle. Current research projects within the overall program have emphasized monitoring of vegetation response, soil infiltration and erosion, livestock grazing patterns, and soil water relations. NWRC welcomes collaboration with other research programs and projects that could benefit from our long-term infrastructure and landscape-scale treatment emphasis.