Fire and the Prairie-forest Mosaic of Devils Tower National Monument

Abstract

Three educational products were proposed to enhance visitor understanding and appreciation of plants at Devils Tower National Monument (DETO) including a flyer, a checklist of common plants, and a complete floristic checklist. Incidental to this, field work was conducted to address questions of species status in the flora and produce a more robust flora for an area already known for its diversity. Of the specimens collected, 12 were additions to the DETO flora, including one noxious weed (since eradicated) and one native addition to the state flora. One additional species was verified from a voucher collected in NPS plot sampling, and nine earlier reports of additions to the DETO flora were verified. A Wyoming plant species of concern was evaluated in the field to investigate whether the determination was correct. NPSpecies, the National Park Service's web-based tool for documenting species in national parks, and the Rocky Mountain Region Digital Herbarium (RMRDH), which includes the DETO specimens, were updated to ensure completeness, currency and consistency. A checklist publication of common plants and a technical checklist of all vascular plants can now be generated from NPSpecies on demand by interpretive staff, natural resource managers, researchers and the general public, using new report tools. A one page educational flyer about selected important DETO plants is submitted as a stand-alone product. After thorough technical work, the new implementation of NPSpecies is up to the task of representing the rich DETO flora, even though floras and plant taxonomy are dynamic. Citation: Heidel, B. and H. Marriott. 2014. Devils Tower National Monument flora-field analysis, updating online resources and applications. Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY. Cover photo: Devils Tower with common plants of prairie and woods, by B. Heidel

Probability of ponderosa pine infestation by mountain pine beetle in the Colorado Front Range

“…The result of altering these processes has been well documented increases in stand densities and fuels. Increased stand densities are thought to make stands more susceptible to insect outbreaks and large fires (Weaver, 1951(Weaver, , 1955(Weaver, , 1959Cooper, 1960;Fisher et al, 1987;Mutch et al, 1993;Covington and Moore, 1994;Johnson, 1994;Arno et al, 1995a,b;Brown and Sieg, 1996;Fulé et al, 1997;Brown et al, 2000).…”

Conserving biodiversity on native rangelands: Symposium proceedings

“…Near Devils Tower, Wyoming, after 1900, the fire return interval increased to every 42 years, versus less than every 27 years previously (Fisher et al 1987). In the south-central Black Hills, Brown and Sieg (1996) record a 104-year fire-free period in ponderosa pine stands between 1890 and 1994, and note that most of past fire s occurred late in the growing season or after growth had ceased for the year.…”

“…Wendtland and Dodd (1992) agree with this range, based on their examination of historical documents and fire records from the Scotts Bluff National Monument area in northwestern Nebraska. Dendrochronology data in the Devils Tower region northwest of the Black Hills reveal that before 1770 the mean interval between fires was 27 years; from 1770 to 1900 the fire return interval was 14 years (Fisher et al 1987). Brown and Sieg (1996) report a mean fire frequency in the south-central Black Hills of 16 years for the period 1388 to 1918.…”

The cost of climate change: Ecosystem services and wildland fires

“…Such type conversion can reduce overall biodiversity and contribute to further increases in the risk of wildland fires (Holmes and Cowling, 1997;Eiswerth et al, 2009). The extent of type conversion depends substantially on the frequency and severity of fire relative to natural fire return intervals (Fisher et al, 1987).…”