Determining an appropriate fire frequency for restoration and maintenance of oak savannas in Pinery Provincial Park.

Abstract

Oak Savanna habitat is globally rare. Prescribed burning is currently a widely-adopted management approach for restoring and maintaining these communities. We examined patterns of habitat recovery in the largest existing remnant in Southern Ontario, Pinery Provincial Park, while setting up a long-term monitoring program aimed at evaluating the success of the long-term prescribed burn plan. Initial results suggest that there is a three year burn lag during which cover of typical oak savanna species increases over this time period following burning. Future studies will determine where the peak of maximum diversity of oak savanna species occurs with respect to time- since- burning.