Summary: Mid-Spring Burning Reduces Spotted Knapweed and
Increases Native Grasses during a Michigan
Experimental Grassland Establishment
Neil W. MacDonald,1,2
Brian T. Scull,3
and Scott R. Abella4
Abstract
Infestations of the exotic perennial Spotted knapweed
(Centaurea maculosa Lam.) hinder the restoration and
management of native ecosystems on droughty, infertile
sites throughout the Midwestern United States. We stud-
ied the effects of annual burning on knapweed persistence
on degraded, knapweed-infested gravel mine spoils in
western Michigan. Our experiment included 48, 4-m2
plots
seeded to native warm-season grasses in 1999 using a facto-
rial arrangement of initial herbicide and fertility treat-
ments. Beginning in 2003, we incorporated fire as an
additional factor and burned half of the plots in late April
or May for 3 years (2003­2005). Burning increased the

Source: Abella, Scott R. - School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Collections: Environmental Sciences and Ecology