Effects of Fire Severity on Herbaceous Vegetation Recovery, Following a Southwest Ponderosa Pine Wildfire

This poster presents research on the effectiveness of aerial seeding conducted on private lands by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) following the Trigo Wildfire of April 2008, which burned 13,709 acres of ponderosa pine and mixed conifer in the Manzano Mountains of central New Mexico. The general objectives of this research were to: - determine the effects of fire severity on the recovery of forest understory vegetative communities and determine how different plant species respond to fire severity; - determine the response of intentionally seeded grass species used in restoration efforts by the NRCS (annual rye grass, Lolium multiflorum, and tall wheat grass, Thinopyrum ponticum) to high and low fire severity; and - evaluate the relative recovery responses of native and exotic plant species to fire severity.