Prescribed Fire in Scrub Oak Habitat in Central Pennsylvania

Abstract

The influence of prescribed fire on scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) habitat was investigated to determine changes in some soil nutrients important in wildlife food plants, some nutritional characteristics of the plants, and their use by white-tailed deer (Odo6oileus virginianus). Analysis of the soil humus layer revealed that higher amounts of exchangeable Ca, higher pH, and lower exchangeable K resulted from burning. The sum of the biomass in herbage and leaves and shoots of woody species was doubled by burning, an effect that held constant for four growing seasons following the fire. Increases were noted in the concentrations of crude protein, P, K, Ca, and Mg in July samples of scrub oak foliage; crude protein in blueberry (Vaccinium sp.) foliage; and Mg in teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens). K concen- trations in teaberry were reduced initially by burning but returned to normal in subsequent growing seasons. Summer browsing of scrub oak by deer was greatest on the most recently burned plots, but use tended to decrease as the time since burning increased. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 40(3):507-516 Prescribed fires often have been used to maintain the plant community in a subcli- max stage such as the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) of the South (Chapman 1936), the pitch pine (P. rigida) of New Jersey (Little and Moore 1949) and the jack pine (P. banksiana) of the Lake States (Ahlgren 1963). In the absence of periodically recur- ring fire, these plant associations are re- placed by plant complexes less fire tolerant that tend to have climax characteristics.