Survival and growth of Pinus echinata and Quercus seedlings in response tosimulated summer and winter prescribed burns

First-year seedlings of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.), southern red oak (Quercus falcata Michx.), and white oak (Quercus alba L.) were subject ed to simulated prescribed burns during August (growing season) or January (dormant season) on an Upper Coastal Plain site in southeastern Arkansas, U .S.A. Survival and growth of resprouting rootstocks were compared with cont rol seedlings through one growing season after burning. Although 100% of th e oaks and 99% of the pines were topkilled by the fires, survival of respro uting rootstocks exceeded 95% for all three species in the year following t he winter burn. No pines resprouted following the summer burn, but rootstoc k survival of oaks averaged > 65%. Compared with controls, winter burns red uced (P < 0.01) mean height and groundline diameter (GLD) of shortleaf pine sprouts through the next growing season. For southern red oak, season of b urning did not negatively affect (P > 0.05) the growth of sprouts during th e year after burning. Although mean heights and GLDs of white oak sprouts v ersus controls were reduced (P less than or equal to 0.04) when means were averaged across burns, white oak sprouts on winter-burn plots were comparab le in size with the control seedlings.