A decision framework for using fire as a restoration tool
Fire, Plants, Restoration 
For the land manager, fire represents a potentially valuable tool in controlling invasive species and restoring native ecosystems. But one of the challenges of utilizing fire in restoration is predicting how plants will ultimately respond to the treatment and planning accordingly.
To help restoration practitioners, David Pyke and fellow researchers have developed a framework "to predict how plants will respond to fires and how fires can be prescribed to enhance the likelihood of obtaining desired plant responses."
The researchers present the framework within a larger article in the journal Restoration Ecology that reviews underlying concepts of fire ecology as it relates to land management. Specifically, the authors review the drivers of fire regimes and how plant characteristics affect vegetation response.
Their framework is essentially a flow chart for plant types based on life form, size and seed characteristics, which maps out a recommended fire regime based on desired management objectives.
For example, for annual plants in which seeds persist or disperse for more than two years and the management objective is to decrease abundance, the framework recommends, "High fire intensity, slow spread rate, timed while seeds are still on the plant and hydrated, and applied repeatedly over many years. May require follow-up herbicide spot treatment."
The framework is simplified and is meant to be a rough guide for a manager - something you could print out and tape to your wall for quick reference in the early steps of project planning. And I suspect much of the larger review article is common knowledge for seasoned fire ecologists.
Nonetheless, I expect that land managers will likely find the framework useful and the overall article an interesting read.
--by Rob Goldstein
Pyke, D., Brooks, M., & D'Antonio, C. (2010). Fire as a Restoration Tool: A Decision Framework for Predicting the Control or Enhancement of Plants Using Fire Restoration Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2010.00658.x
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