The long-term development of the forest community on this site can also be predicted. 

 Considering the spacing of the planted Douglas -fir, overstory shade could begin to influence the 

 snowbrush within as few as 10 years. By reputation, and as evidenced by its meager showing in 

 the prefire vegetation, snowbrush is intolerant to shade. These shrubs will deteriorate, and 

 conceivably will disappear within 20 years- -leaving only a blanket of seeds to lie dormant until 

 the next fire. When the snowbrush disappears so will most of the wildlife -production potential 

 of this stand, because the two tall shrub species will already be out of reach and other species 

 are thinly scattered. 



Willow and maple will again reverse dominance: willow will decline and maple will in- 

 crease because of their differential tolerance to overstory competition. We can also expect the 

 two Ribes species to switch positions; the less tolerant R. viscosissimum will lose any com- 

 parative advantages it gained following the fire. At this point, the response of snowberry and 

 serviceberry cannot be predicted, and the samples of other shrub species may be too small to 

 provide valid behavioral information. 



If succession is uninterrupted, the vegetation in this stand will probably be similar to the 

 prefire vegetation (table 1) in about 40 years. Wildlife habitat values will reach a maximum 

 during the first 15 years and then begin a slow decline to the poor forage production usual in a 

 mature timber stand. As these changes occur, studies will be continued to determine rates of 

 plant development and habitat values for each stage of forest succession. This information will 

 be extremely helpful in planning long-term maintenance of wildlife populations in Neal Canyon 

 and in other areas having similar vegetation. All things considered, the Neal Canyon pre- 

 scribed fire should provide information pertinent to wildlife management that will have far more 

 dollar value than the cost of the fire or the worth of the eventual crop of timber. 



Figure 11.- -A site near the 

 Neal Canyon Study area, 

 burned by wildfire in 

 1950. Note how snow- 

 brush dominates . 



