Vegetation structure affects the vulnerability of a forest to drought events and wildfires. Management decisions, such as thinning intensity and type of understory treatment, influence competition for water resources and amount of fuel available.
Post-fire forest management commonly requires accepting some negative ecological impacts from management activities in order to achieve management objectives. Managers need to know, however,whether ecological impacts from post-fire management activities are transient or cause long-term ecosystem degradation.
This study investigated the long-term response of understory vegetation to two post-fire logging treatments (commercial salvage logging with and without additional fuel reduction logging) in northeastern Oregon. Researchers assessed if there were lasting effects on understory plant cover, species diversity, plant community composition, and exotic species cover in experimental treatment units 15 years post-treatment. The study area is located within the area burned by the 1996 Summit Fire, which burned mostly at high severity although it occurred in dry coniferous forests that historically burned at frequent intervals (14-16 years) and at low severity.