Challenge Cost Share: Prescribed Fire Research in the Daniel Boone National Forest

The purpose of this Challenge Cost Share Agreement is to monitor environmental effects and test hypotheses with respect to prescribed burning within the Cumberland Ranger District on the Daniel Boone National Forest. The study will involve the location of study plots, gathering data from plots of unburned controls and plots within prescribed burn areas pre and post-burn. The study will include monitoring the effect of prescribed fire on vegetation, including overstory, herbaceous layers. The study also builds on previous work to disclose the effects of prescribed fire on individual oak and maple seedlings, using hemispherical photography, seedling growth measurements, and seedlin nutrient status. This agreement includes the short-term goals of the present study as well as long-term monitoring of the vegetation response to prescribed fire in both this study and previous studies.