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The ecological effects of forest fires burning with high severity are long-lived and have the greatest impact on vegetation successional trajectories, as compared to low-to-moderate severity fires. The primary drivers of high severity fire are…
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There is widespread concern that fire exclusion has led to an unprecedented threat of uncharacteristically severe fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and mixed-conifer forests of western North America. These extensive montane…
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Dr. Dick Hutto, professor of Organismal Biology and Ecology at the University of Montana, took participants of the May 2014 Large Wildland Fires Conference to recently burned sites to discuss fire effects. Hutto was enthused and excited about “the…
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Comprehensive assessment of ecological change after fires have burned forests and rangelands is important if we are to understand, predict and measure fire effects. We highlight the challenges in effective assessment of fire and burn severity in the…
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Wildfire effects upon riparian plant community structure, composition, and distribution may strongly influence the dynamic relationships between riparian vegetation and stream ecosystems. However, few studies have examined the influence of fire on…
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During the 2012 fire season from June through August, wildfires in the droughtstricken western and central United States burned more than 3.6 million acres of forest and shrubland. In the hot, dry, windy conditions seen that…
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Aim: Wildfire is often considered more severe now than historically in dry forests of the western United States. Tree-ring reconstructions, which suggest that historical dry forests were park-like with large, old trees maintained by low-severity…
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In the Northern Rockies, forests that have escaped fire are rare. In the Crown, fire is just as important as rainfall and sunlight are to plants and animals. For the vast majority of forest types within the region, the predominant…
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Each year, large areas are burned in wildfires across the Western United States. Assessing the ecological effects of these fires is crucial to effective postfire management. This requires accurate, efficient, and economical methods to assess the…
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Influence of wildfire severity on riparian plant community heterogeneity in an Idaho, USA wilderness
Despite the increasing recognition of riparian zones as important ecotones that link terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and of fire as a critical natural disturbance, much remains unknown regarding the influence of fire on stream-riparian ecosystems…
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Several recent papers have suggested replacing the terminology of fire intensity and fire severity. Part of the problem with fire intensity is that it is sometimes used incorrectly to describe fire effects, when in fact it is justifiably restricted…
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The Black-backed Woodpecker is an uncommon bird of the northern coniferous forests of North America. It is one of several species of fauna that are considered fire specialists. This woodpecker nests in cavities it creates in dead standing trees and…
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In 2003, the Lost Creek fire burned 21,000 ha of nearly contiguous crown land forests in the headwater regions of the Oldman River Basin, Alberta. Seven small watersheds with various levels of land disturbance (burned, post-fire salvage logged,…
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We compared the spatial characteristics of fire severity patches within individual fire "runs" (contiguous polygons burned during a given day) resulting from a 72,000 ha fire in central Idaho in 1994. Our hypothesis was that patch…
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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…
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Many wildfire events have burned thousands of hectares across the western United States, such as the Bitterroot (Montana), Rodeo-Chediski (Arizona), Hayman (Colorado), and Biscuit (Oregon) fires. These events led to Congress enacting the Healthy…
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Vegetation response and burn severity were examined following eight large wildfires that burned in 2003 and 2004: two wildfires in California chaparral, two each in dry and moist mixed-conifer forests in Montana, and two in boreal forests in…
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A study funded through National Fire Plan evaluates the relation between pre-wildfire forest structure and post-wildfire soil burn severity across three forest types: dry, moist, and cold forests. Over 73 wildfires were sampled in Idaho, Oregon,…
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Comparisons between unburned sites, low-intensity fires, and high-intensity fires in this ponderosa pine-dominated community indicate that a majority of the species coverages and frequencies are unchanged regardless of burn treatment. Also, a…
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Fire can cause profound changes in the composition and abundance of plant and animal species, but logistics, unpredictability of weather, and inherent danger make it nearly impossible to study high-severity fire effects experimentally. We took…
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