9401

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9401
• Author: Hessl, A. and S. Spackman.
• Title: Effects of Fire on Threatened and Endangered Plants
• USFW Year: 1995.
• USFW - Doc Type: An Annotated Bibliography.
• Copyright Material: NO

Effects of Fire on Threatened and Endangered Plants:
An Annotated Bibliography

by

Amy Hessll

and

Susan Spackman 1

The Nature Conservancy
Colorado Natural Heritage Program
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado 80309

Abstract. This bibliography presents basic infonnation about the effects of fire on plants that the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists as endangered or threatened or as category-one (el) candidates
for federal listing. We searched 23 databases for publications, unpublished reports, and records with
pertinent infonnation; summarized and compiled infonnation on the effects of fire from all final rulings
on endangered and threatened plants and from endangered species recovery plans for plants; and
solicited infonnation from key researchers and agencies involved in fire ecology. The bibliography
includes 126 references to the effect of fife on 172 federally listed plant species, or on 26% of the total
number of federally listed plant species in these categories. Our study revealed that the total number
of relevant articles has been increasing since the 1970s and more rapidly since the 1980s. Although
research on fire and rare plants is increasing, an absence of infonnation on many species persists. We
hope that this document will facilitate and encourage research in this increasingly important field of
botanical conservation.

Key words: Bibliography, botanical conservation. endangered plants, fire ecology, threatened plants,
rare plants.

Fire plays a role in the management of many threatened
and endangered plant species. Fire helps maintain open
habitat (*2Rome 1987; Jacobson et al. 1991), encourages
sexual and vegetative reproduction (*Boyd 1987; Hartnett
and Richardson 1989; *Kirkman and Drew 1993), and
affects competing or associated plant species (Stone and
Scott 1985; Melgoza et al. 1990; *Fishbein and Gori 1992).
Although fire may injure or kill plants (Dunwiddie 1990;
*Cobb 1994), long-tenn effects on species may be benefi-
cial. For example, the same fire that kills plants may also
reduce competitors (*Folkerts 1977; *U.s. Fish and Wildlife
Service 1986) or create beneficial openings for seedling

I Present address: Colorado Natural Heritage Program, College of
Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fon Collins, Colo,
80523,
2 An asterisk denotes unpublished material,

establishment (Gankin and Major 1964; *U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 199Oa, 1993a; Menges and McAnlis 1994).
Fire suppression may imperil some endangered plant species
(Schwartz and Hennan 1991; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1990b; *Kagan 1992; *U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1994a). On the other hand, researchers in Hawaii fear that
even a single fire would be a serious threat to the survival of
some endangered' plant species by either directly killing
plants or by encouraging the invasion and competition from
exotic species that are well adapted to fire (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 1985; *U.S. Fish and Wildlife SerVice .
199Oa; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990b, 1991a, 1992a,
1994a, 1994b).
Fire management must address the timing of a bum (i.e.,
timing in relation to the life cycles of the plants) and the area,
frequency, and intensity of a bum (U.S. Fish and Wildlife

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