The effects of prescribed fire on millipede and salamander populations in a southern Appalachian deciduous forest

Prescribed fire has increased as a forest management practice in southern Appalachia, but investigations into the effects of this silvicultural treatment on non-game wildlife inhabiting the region is limited. This study investigated the effects of prescribed fire on millipede and salamander populations. Seventeen sites within the Cherokee National Forest in east Tennessee that were treated once with prescribed fire between 1998 and 2002 were examined in the spring of 2002. Each burned plot was paired with an adjacent unburned plot.;The number of individual millipedes and salamanders collected from burned plots was compared to the corresponding control plot. Millipedes declined in numbers following treatment with prescribed fire. The number of salamanders collected was insufficient to permit analyses comparing the number of salamanders found in burned and control sites. No difference between burned and control plots was detected in the species comprising the millipede communities.