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Mixed-Conifer Management

Displaying 1 - 10 of 71

Montane springs provide regeneration refugia after high-severity wildfire

Year of Publication
2024
Publication Type

In the mountainous regions of the Western United States, increasing wildfire activity and climate change are putting forests at risk of regeneration failure and conversion to non-forests. During periods with unfavorable climatic conditions, locations that are suitable for post-fire tree regeneration (regeneration refugia) may be essential for forest recovery.

Branching out: species-specific canopy architecture limits live crown fuel consumption in Intermountain West USA conifers

Year of Publication
2024
Publication Type

Accurate estimates of available live crown fuel loads are critical for understanding potential wildland fire behavior. Existing crown fire behavior models assume that available crown fuels are limited to all tree foliage and half of the fine branches less than 6 mm in diameter (1 h fuel). They also assume that this relationship is independent of the branchwood moisture content.

Thinning and prescribed burning increase shade-tolerant conifer regeneration in a fire excluded mixed-conifer forest

Year of Publication
2024
Publication Type

Fire exclusion and past management have altered the composition, structure, and function of frequent-fire forests throughout western North America. In mixed-conifer forests of the California Sierra Nevada, fire exclusion has exacerbated the effects of drought and endemic bark beetles, resulting in extensive mortality of fire-adapted pine species.

Exceptional variability in historical fire regimes across a western Cascades landscape, Oregon, USA

Year of Publication
2023
Publication Type
Detailed information about the historical range of variability in wildfire activity informs adaptation to future climate and disturbance regimes. Here, we describe one of the first annually resolved reconstructions of historical (1500–1900 ce) fire occurrence in coast Douglas-fir dominated forests of the west slope of the Cascade Range in western Oregon.

Refuge-yeah or refuge-nah? Predicting locations of forest resistance and recruitment in a fiery world

Year of Publication
2023
Publication Type

Climate warming, land use change, and altered fire regimes are driving ecological transformations that can have critical effects on Earth's biota. Fire refugia—locations that are burned less frequently or severely than their surroundings—may act as sites of relative stability during this period of rapid change by being resistant to fire and supporting post-fire recovery in adjacent areas.