Fire in North American Wetland Ecosystems and Fire-Wildlife Relations: An Annotated Bibliography

163. McAtee, J. W., C. J. Scifres, and D. L. Drawe. 1979a. Digestible energy 
          and protein content of gulf cordgrass following burning or shredding. 
          J. Range Manage. 32:376-378.

Digestible energy and crude protein content of green gulf cordgrass was significantly increased for 30 to 90 days after burning or shredding on Texas coastal prairie: digestible energy of 2,414 to 2,891 kcal/kg in regrowth on burned areas and from 1,879 to 2,602 kcaVkg on shredded areas compared to 1,612 to 1,917 kcal/kg in green leaves of plants from untreated areas; crude protein of 9% to 11% following burning or shredding compared to 4% to 5% in green plants from untreated areas. Both burning and shredding have potential for increasing the nutritional value of gulf cordgrass during the cool season when other green forages are scarce on the coastal prairie. The roughness of cordgrass range, its frequent inundation, and the cost of shredding make fire the most practical approach to cordgrass improvement. Season of burning is not critical as long as sufficient moisture is available for regrowth; fall or early winter burns appear most logical on the Texas coastal prairie. [From authors' abstract]

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