I report some short term effects of chaparral fuel management by disking, hand cutting, and prescribed fire on rodents, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Comparisons between treated and untreated areas showed that in the year following treatments (1980) in the disked area there were significantly fewer captures of rodents (10 vs 60) and lizards (5 vs 15), and species of birds observed (9 vs 18). Rodent captures remained significantly lower in the disked area (37 vs 104) in 1981. There were significantly fewer captures of rodents in the hand cut area than in the untreated area (36 vs 71) in 1980. Prescribed fire was also followed by significantly fewer captures of rodents in the burned area (41 vs 58) in 1981, and in the number of lizards and toads captured in 1980 (8 vs 29). The differences in capture frequencies of rodents between treated and untreated areas can be partly explained by the habitat preferences of the individual? species. The rodent community was most sensitive to these habitat manipulations, followed by the herpetofauna. The avifauna was least sensitive to habitat manipulations. The reduction in the numbers of all three vertebrate groups after disking was related to the changes in the plant community, where 79 percent shrub cover was replaced by a sparse (16 percent) cover of grasses and forbs.
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