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Bare Ground and Shrub Cover of Burned and Unburned Openings of Florida Scrub.   L.S. Rohleder1 and P.A. Schmalzer2.  1Allegheny College, Meadville PA, and 2Dynamac Corp., Kennedy Space Center, FL.

   Florida scrub is a fire-maintained ecosystem that is the home for Florida Scrub-Jays, a threatened, endemic species.  Scrub is disappearing due to development, land fragmentation, and fire suppression, which causes scrub to become overgrown.  NASA is restoring habitat lost from the construction of KSC by cutting and burning overgrown scrub.  This project is studying the effects of piling slash before burning to create a hotter fire to kill roots and rhizomes and create an opening needed in Scrub-Jay habitat.  Eleven openings created this way were sampled; they were created in 1993, and seven burned again in 2004. The percent bare ground and percent shrub cover were compared in openings that burned to those that did not burn and of openings that burned to areas of scrub that also burned but were not in openings.  Measurements of the current area of the openings were collected, and cover by species was sampled on a line-intercept transect.  Bare ground was greater in openings compared to transects, but no difference was found between burned and unburned openings. Shrub cover was greater in unburned openings, but no difference was found between openings and transects. Mechanical cutting and piling slash for prescribed burnings is an effective way to create an opening in overgrown scrub and control shrub species.  However, total bare ground should not be expected to last for long, as overhead shrub cover and species of non-shrub plants are very resilient and can re-grow quickly after burning.  (Supported by NASA: SLSTP)