After a summer burn, protein content and palatability of grasses are higher, and the amount of mast produced by herbaceous and shrubby vegetation is increased. Summer burns are also effective at reducing midstory shrubs and vines, and promoting growth of herbaceous vegetation. Properly used, prescribed fires can be applied to site preparation prior to planting of overstory trees, range forage improvement, restoration and maintenance of natural vegetation, and control of undesired vegetation. The Florida Division of Forestry will help you plan and implement a burn program that is best for your land management objectives. Through fire or mechanical means such as discing, scarification can be used to create openings for understory vegetation, or for planting or seeding native forbs in plantations or pastures.
Fire is preferable to discing, as it retains root crowns of perennial plants.
Tree Removal Thinning and partial harvests are important operations for gradually increasing community diversity. Selection cutting of overstory and midstory trees allows an uneven-aged stand to develop if a variety of species already exist in the stand. Patch cutting provides larger openings for the growth of herbaceous vegetation and establishment of young trees and shrubs. For rapid vegetation regrowth follow these removals with a prescribed growing-season fire. Thinning by any of these methods on a 5 to 8 year cycle is recommended for increasing mast production.