Fire is often utilized to reduce fuel loads, clear understory, and restore ecosystems diversity. Understanding the impacts of prescribed fire on a local scale is important to accurate fire prescriptions and predicting post fire impacts on Tahoe's sensitive ecosystem. Mineral forms of nitrogen are of particular interest in such a system due to significant impacts on biological growth. Soil moisture content, fire temperature, total nitrogen, C:N ratio, and fire residence time are all potential factors of influence. A prescribed fire was conducted on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe California near Carnelian Bay in the summer of 2004. Responses in soil chemistry were monitored for one year prior and one year post fire, including immediate pre and post fire soil sampling. Results from the prescribed fire showed the expected increase in soil ammonium but a high amount of spatial variability. In order to elucidate the factors that might affect the amount of ammonium release during fire, a laboratory muffle furnace study was conducted that included varying moisture, temperature, and burn time. It is hoped that these results will help forest managers assess the effects of varying burn severity and season of burn on the mineral nitrogen release with fire.