A study of prescribed burns, tree and shrub layer in oak savanna plant communities in Southern Ontario: Pinery Provincial Park, Rondeau Provincial Park and Point Pelee National Park

Oak savanna is a rare plant community in Ontario, which has been intensely overgrazed by white-tailed deer in the study areas. The goals of the study were to: 1) assess vegetation recovery after deer herd reduction and prescribed burns at Pinery Provincial Park, 2) monitor savanna remnants at Rondeau Provincial Park and Point Pelee National Park. In the Pinery sites deer exclosures were built in 1994 in order to test for deer grazing. Following burning some of the sites at Pinery and at Rondeau has shown an increase in species such as Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii). In the unburned site at Rondeau native savanna species are present. In Pelee the Oak savanna remnants appear to be in an advanced stage of succession with closer canopy and forest type species. The tree and shrub density are similar, except for the tree density in the Point Pelee sand dune.