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Re: burning wetland prairie?

Thanks, James, for the reminder about invertebrates.

Sunday was the hottest burn in the Indian grass field.  Usually when the
forestry crew has had time to burn, it's really been too wet to get the
fire to carry through the entire field.  The field is usually flooded by
the adjacent  major stream at least once a year, which mats down
standing vegetation plus deposits sediment on top of it all, leaving a
wet layer of leaf litter, sticks and forbs that doesn't burn.  The
Indian grass resists being flattened more than the other vegetation, so
tends to burn the hottest.

The wintering white throated sparrows are not happy!

There is a third wet field on the other side of the large creek that has
been used off and on for hay and pasture. It has standing water in a
perched water table above the stream.  I've been sowing collected Indian
grass seed there for several years, & it is slowly taking hold and
crowding out the cool season grasses.  So that will provide a third site
for crawly critters.

Are streams likely to be barriers for inverts of concern?  At low flow,
one is a small limestone spring fed stream about 3 ft wide and a few
inches deep; the other is about 20 ft wide and 6 or 8 inches deep.  When
flooded the entire bottomland is under water several hundred feet wide
and 15 or more feet deep.  The wet field with the perched water table is
above the floodplain.

I have seen several different types of Skippers in the Indian grass
field, but don't know much about them or other invertebrates of concern
in this type of site.   Is there a website for prairie or 'glade'
invertebrates that might help me do a survey?

Thanks, Carl, for the temperature limit on Roundup.

I'm not sure about the timing of burns, but would guess late March/early
April in Iowa would be similar to late Feb/early March here?  Early
daffodils are in full bloom, alder along the stream starting to bloom,
first bloodroots on the edge of the woods up and showing color in bud.

Thanks again for everybody's help.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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