Research Database

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Examining post-fire vegetation recovery with Landsat time series analysis in three western North American forest types

Year: 2019

Background: Few studies have examined post-fire vegetation recovery in temperate forest ecosystems with Landsat time series analysis. We analyzed time series of Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) derived from LandTrendr spectral-temporal segmentation fitting to examine post-fire NBR recovery for several wildfires that occurred in three different coniferous forest types in western North America during the years 2000 to 2007. We summarized NBR recovery trends, and investigated the influence of burn severity, post-fire climate, and topography on post-fire vegetation recovery via random forest (RF)…

Climate Change and Fire, Fire Effects and Fire Ecology

fire regimes, post-fire, remote sensing, fire severity

Publication Type: Journal Article

Prescribed fire regimes subtly alter ponderosa pine forest plant community structure

Year: 2019

Prescribed fire is an active management tool used to address wildfire hazard and ecological concerns associated with fire exclusion and suppression over the past century. Despite widespread application in the United States, there is considerable inconsistency and lack of information regarding the extent to which specific outcomes are achieved and under what prescribed fire regimes, particularly in regard to ecological goals related to plant community structure. We quantify differences and patterns in plant functional group abundance, species richness and diversity, and other key forest…

Fuels and Fuel Treatments, Prescribed Burning

disturbance, fire regimes, ponderosa pine

Publication Type: Journal Article

Lessons of the Hayman fire: weeds, woodpeckers and fire severity

Year: 2008

This project took advantage of pre-fire data gathered within the perimeter of Colorado’s 2002 Hayman Fire. Researchers studied the unique fire regime of Front Range ponderosa pine forests, and fire effects on understory-plant communities and American Three-toed Woodpeckers. Results confirmed that historically, the diverse structure of these forests was maintained by a mixed-severity fire regime that included large areas of severe fire. In addition, researchers found that much of the burn meets habitat requirements for American Three-toed Woodpeckers, and that understory plant species that…

Fire Effects and Fire Ecology, Fish and Wildlife Habitat

fire severity, ponderosa pine, fire regimes, forest structure

Publication Type: Report

The Ecological Importance of Severe Wildfires: Some Like it Hot

Year: 2008

Many scientists and forest land managers concur that past fire suppression, grazing, and timber harvesting practices have created unnatural and unhealthy conditions in the dry, ponderosa pine forests of the western United States. Specifically, such forests are said to carry higher fuel loads and experience fires that are more severe than those that occurred historically. It remains unclear, however, how far these generalizations can be extrapolated in time and space, and how well they apply to the more mesic ponderosa pine systems and to other forest systems within the western United States.…

Fish and Wildlife Habitat, Mixed-Conifer Management

fire regimes, fire severity, wildlife

Publication Type: Journal Article