Abstract
The first field season of this work was completed on Labor Day, 1984. During this first summer, study plots were chosen on Custer Battlefield. Twenty of the plots were at scattered sites on the 1983 burn; five more plots, the controls, were placed on the unburned portion of the Monument. These plots all were located in relation to the NPS grid system which has been placed over the Monument grounds. From a coordinate permanent marker, twenty meters were measured to the north and to the west by means of a compass and metric tape. This accounted for three of the four corners of the 20 X 20m2 plots. The fourth corner was located subsequently. The coordinates for the plots on the burn are: N76-E24, N78-E19, N78-E18, N74-E28, N73-E28, N71-E28, N71-E26, N71-E25, N70-E22, N69-E20, N68-E21, N67-E23, N67-E23, N66-E25, N76-E18, N76-E20, N74-E22, N72-E21, N70-E19, N78-E27, and 15m west of soldier #153's marker. The control plot coordinates are: N80-E19, N80-E18, N67-E27, N66-E26, and N67-E28. Five more 20 X 20m2 plots were selected on adjacent lands belonging to the Crow Indian Tribe where the 1983 fire had been. These plots contrasted with those on the Monument because the Crow people have kept cattle and horses on this land for several years, and they have continued this land use after the fire as well. The plots on the Indian lands are-south from N64-E24, south from N64-E28, east from N66-E30, east from N75-E30, and east from N73-E30.