Fire Ecology and Management of Canebrakes

Giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea (Walter) Muhl.), a native species of bamboo, occurs in communities scattered across much of the southeastern and lower midwestern United States.  Native cane is functionally important in the Southeast as it preserves water quality and serves as essential habitat type that many biotic species depend upon for their survival. However, comparison of present distribution with historical accounts indicates a significant loss of cane in the landscape.  Cane previously grew in expansive stands, known as canebrakes, which most commonly spanned floodplains. However, the species also occurred on upland slopes, bluffs, and ridges.  Agriculture, land clearing, and altered fire regimes however have caused cane to become isolated in sporadic communities primarily along riparian corridors.  Thus, canebrakes are now considered as critically endangered ecosystems (Noss et al. 1995). 

The exclusion of fire from cane stands reduces aboveground stem (culm) density and overall health (Hughes 1966).  Yet with proper fire management existing canebrakes can thrive in much of the Southeast.  Researchers have shown that 10 year burn intervals can maximize the productivity of cane stands (Hughes 1966). During the 5^th growing season following a burn however, fuel loads are near their peak (~7 tons per acre).  Therefore shorter burning cycles may be used if maintaining fuel loads in canebrakes is a primary management objective (Hughes 1966). 

In the Southeast, canebrakes generally are not managed using prescribed burns because of the difficulty in controlling the burns and the potential associated fauna loss.  Because of isolation, burning a canebrake could threaten the future of biota dependent on cane as a food source and/or habitat.  However, through the implementation of proper conservation and restoration methods, such as overstory tree removal and prescribed burning where only one third of the area is burned in any year and allowed to recover before the adjacent area is burned, there is high probability that this unique community of the Southeast can be maintaned.