DOI: 10.7944/shdg-4c57
title: Dataset for:  Plots at Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge on the Rodgers Plateau 

description: This is one of three datasets at Balcones Canyonland National Wildlife Refuge studied. 

This dataset represents Project 3. Project 3 is to investigate the effects of prescribed burns on woodland composition and structure across the Refuge. The Service will be substantially involved in this project and will be responsible for 1) collaborating with the Recipient to finalize site-specific protocols by 30 July 2021; 2) provide GIS shapefiles and data on site-specific burn history and fire severity by 30 June 2021; 3) provide relevant lidar datasets collected in 2017 by 30 June 2021 and 2021 when available; 4) provide logistical support including assistance with accessing study sites; and 5) provide a vehicle with 4WD capacity for accessing field sites as needed, between 15 May and 30 November 2021, between 15 May and 30 November 2022, and between 15 May and 31 August 2023.
description: We conducted a long-term study in Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei) -oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands at the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern border of the Edwards Plateau in central Texas to test the interaction of thinning and prescribed fire, combined factorially with deer exclusion, on oak regeneration and overall woodland composition and structure. In 2010, we crossed a ‘burn’ treatment (thinning and prescribed fire) with a ‘fence’ treatment (deer exclusion). Twenty 11.0-m radius (0.038 ha) plots were established in 2009. The fence and burn treatments were implemented in 2010 in a split-plot design. Ten plots were enclosed within a 1.3-ha fence made of sturdy metal wire, 2.5-m tall, with approximately 15.5- x 15-cm gaps large enough to let squirrels and other small animals through. Ten plots, including five inside and five outside the fence, were then randomly selected as burn plots for a total of five plots per burn-fence treatment combination. Field data collection followed a modified FIREMON protocol. Mature trees and saplings were surveyed in the full 11.0-m radius plot, and seedlings were surveyed in a 3.57-m radius (0.004 ha) subplot around plot center. By 2012, independent Texas red oak saplings had not increased significantly in any treatment combination, but large oak sprouts from the base of mature trees had increased in plots that were both burned and fenced. We returned to these plots in 2021, following an 11-year fire-free interval, to assess the long-term effects of the treatments on canopy dynamics, oak sapling recruitment, and woodland structure. Eleven years after treatment implementation, we observed mature Texas red oak mortality in all plots, including control plots, suggesting that this species may be declining in the region. In contrast, we only observed notable oak regeneration, including large sprouts from mature trees and independent oak saplings, in plots that were both burned and fenced to exclude deer. We conclude that thinning and/or prescribed fires are necessary to increase oak regeneration, but that highly abundant white-tailed deer can limit their efficacy by excluding palatable species such as oaks during post-fire recovery.