Wood stakes will be installed on the ponderosa pine stocking study at Taylor Woods, located on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona in April/May 2003 following scheduled prescribed burning treatments. The Taylor Wood study was established in 1962 to determine the effect of different basal area (B.A.) densities on ponderosa pine growth (Ronco et al. 1985). In the fall of 1998 all B.A. treatments, which range from 0 to 150 ft²/acre, had a low intensity prescribed fire treatment applied on half of each B.A. density plot. Two wood stake microplots will be established around soil moisture and temperature data collectors on both burned and unburned treatment plots in four of the B.A. treatments: 0, 60, 100, and 150 ft²/acre. Each treatment is replicated three times.

Mineral soil - twenty-five stakes (2.5 x 2.5 x 20 cm) of loblolly pine and aspen will be installed in the mineral soil at each microplot - for a total of 2400 stakes (25 stakes x 2 species x 4 B.A. treatments x 2 fire treatments x 3 replicates x 2 microplots). Five stakes of each species will be removed from all microplots every 12 months. Soil moisture, temperature, and CO₂/O₂ levels will be measured at 10 and 20 cm soil depths in each microplot.

Litter layer (forest floor) - fifty wood stakes (2.5 x 2.5 x 15 cm) of each tree species will be installed in the litter layer of each microplot: 25 stakes at the litter layer/mineral soil interface, and 25 stakes on the litter layer surface. A total of 4800 stakes (25 stakes x 2 species x 4 B.A. treatments x 2 fire treatments x 2 litter layer locations x 3 replicates x 2 microplots) will be used. Temperature will be measured in the litter layer/mineral soil interface, and if possible, on the litter layer surface.

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