Download or read book Post-fire Recovery of Wyoming Big Sagebrush Shrub-steppe in Central and Southeast Montana written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sagebrush is a widespread habitat throughout the study area and a number of species including greater sage-grouse, pronghorn, Brewers sparrow, sage sparrow, sage thrasher and sagebrush vole are sagebrush dependent, at least at some stage of their life cycles. Fire constitutes an important driver in structuring sagebrush ecosystems; past investigations have established that the response of the big sagebrush component (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) varies according to subspecies. Plant species richness significantly declined in burned plots compared to their unburned control plots. Findings of extremely slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery after fire are similar to the other research in the area. The slow Wyoming big sagebrush recovery and the increase in the weedy annual grass field brome suggests that managers concerned about greater sage-grouse and other sage-dependent species should be extremely cautious with prescribed burns and wildfires in this region. Burns may essentially eliminate sagebrush habitat, increase weedy annual grass cover, reduce species richness, and could take a century or more for recovery to pre-burn sagebrush cover conditions.