Forage quality in burned and unburned aspen communities

Abstract

Assessed the effects of fire on the quality of herbaceous and browse forage for elk Cervus elaphus and domestic sheep Ovis aries in the aspen Populus tremuloides forest type. Selected forage species were sampled on burned and adjacent unburned areas during the summers of the 1st and 2nd yr after autumn prescribed burning of 3 sites in SE Idaho. This aspen type has a highly nutritious understory irrespective of burning, with additional improvement in forage quality as a result of prescribed burning. Prescribed burning changed species composition from dense shrub motts to more palatable and nutritious forbs than were found on the unburned areas. -from Authors