Fire legacies in eastern ponderosa pine forests

Roberts, Caleb P.; Donovan, Victoria M.; Wonkka, Carissa L.; Powell, Larkin A.; Allen, Craig R.; Angeler, David G.; Wedin, David A.

doi:10.1002/ece3.4879

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The Pine Ridge region of Nebraska represents an elevated escarpment in the northwestern corner of Nebraska, USA and hosts one of the easternmost communities of ponderosa pine in North America. The region has experienced a number of mixed severity wildfires in recent decades that have significantly altered the land cover of the region [25,31]. In 2006, the mixed-severity Dawes Complex fire burned approximately 11,300 ha across a mixture of public and private lands in the Pine Ridge.…”

Section: Study Area and Sampling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, only sites treated with post-fire management suffered negative impacts to species richness. Numerous studies have noted the importance of mixed-severity wildfire legacies to wildlife community composition and diversity within a landscape [25,[67][68][69]. Asynchronous patches dispersed across a landscape can boost landscape heterogeneity, diversity, and resilience [70].…”

Section: Wildlife Community and Habitat Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences in fuel dynamics and topography means that fires tend to be more frequent in the savanna like structure of eastern ponderosa pine forests compared to interior forests [21,24]. These systems host unique ecological communities composed of both forest and grassland dwelling species [25,26]. Thus, assessing the potential costs and benefits of post-fire management using studies from montane forests might not allow managers to appropriately identify the complexity of potential outcomes in eastern ponderosa pine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ponderosa Pine Regeneration, Wildland Fuels Management, and Habitat Conservation: Identifying Trade-Offs Following Wildfire

Donovan

Roberts

Wonkka

et al. 2019

Forests

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Increasing wildfires in western North American conifer forests have led to debates surrounding the application of post-fire management practices. There is a lack of consensus on whether (and to what extent) post-fire management assists or hinders managers in achieving goals, particularly in under-studied regions like eastern ponderosa pine forests. This makes it difficult for forest managers to balance among competing interests. We contrast structural and community characteristics across unburned ponderosa pine forest, severely burned ponderosa pine forest, and severely burned ponderosa pine forest treated with post-fire management with respect to three management objectives: ponderosa pine regeneration, wildland fuels control, and habitat conservation. Ponderosa pine saplings were more abundant in treated burned sites than untreated burned sites, suggesting increases in tree regeneration following tree planting; however, natural regeneration was evident in both unburned and untreated burned sites. Wildland fuels management greatly reduced snags and coarse woody debris in treated burned sites. Understory cover measurements revealed bare ground and fine woody debris were more strongly associated with untreated burned sites, and greater levels of forbs and grass were more strongly associated with treated burned sites. Wildlife habitat was greatly reduced following post-fire treatments. There were no tree cavities in treated burned sites, whereas untreated burned sites had an average of 27 ± 7.68 cavities per hectare. Correspondingly, we found almost double the avian species richness in untreated burned sites compared to treated burned sites (22 species versus 12 species). Unburned forests and untreated burned areas had the same species richness, but hosted unique avian communities. Our results indicate conflicting outcomes with respect to management objectives, most evident in the clear costs to habitat conservation following post-fire management application.

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Section: Study Area and Sampling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wildlife Community and Habitat Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ponderosa Pine Regeneration, Wildland Fuels Management, and Habitat Conservation: Identifying Trade-Offs Following Wildfire

Donovan

Roberts

Wonkka

et al. 2019

Forests

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“…Forested areas in the Northwestern Great Plains, where a persistent decrease was observed, are largely composed of nonresprouting ponderosa pine in contrast with ecoregions like Cross Timbers and the Southern Texas plains, which are dominated by resprouting tree species like oak ( Quercus sp.). Ponderosa pine has been shown to be susceptible to state changes in smaller scale, field‐based studies (e.g., Odion et al, 2010; Roberts et al, 2019; Savage & Mast, 2005). That said, ponderosa pine regeneration occurs over decadal time scales rather than the annual patterns captured here, so longer term assessments may be needed to assess recovery relative to the life history of this species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We assessed changes in tree cover in the Ash Creek wildfire, where ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa ) was prevalent. Ponderosa pine ecosystems have been shown to be susceptible to ecological transitions (a shift in ecosystem structure, function, and feedbacks) following severe wildfire (Odion et al, 2010; Roberts et al, 2019). In the Region 24 Complex fire, we assessed perennial forb and grass cover, due to the perceived fragility of the Nebraska Sandhills grasslands to erosion following wildfire (USDA, 2011).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience to Large, “Catastrophic” Wildfires in North America's Grassland Biome

et al. 2020

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Wildfires are ecosystem‐level drivers of structure and function in many vegetated biomes. While numerous studies have emphasized the benefits of fire to ecosystems, large wildfires have also been associated with the loss of ecosystem services and shifts in vegetation abundance. The size and number of wildfires are increasing across a number of regions, and yet the outcomes of large wildfire on vegetation at large‐scales are still largely unknown. We introduce an exhaustive analysis of wildfire‐scale vegetation response to large wildfires across North America's grassland biome. We use 18 years of a newly released vegetation data set combined with 1,390 geospatial wildfire perimeters and drought data to detect large‐scale vegetation response among multiple vegetation functional groups. We found no evidence of persistent declines in vegetation driven by wildfire at the biome level. All vegetation functional groups exhibited relatively rapid recovery to pre wildfire ranges of variation across the Great Plains ecoregions, with the exception being a persistent decrease in the abundance of trees in the Northwestern Great Plains. Drought intensity magnified immediate vegetation response to wildfire. Persistent declines in vegetation cover were observed at the scale of single pixels (30 m), suggesting that these responses were localized and represent extreme cases within larger wildfires. Our findings echo over a century of research demonstrating a biome resilient to wildfire.

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Targeted grazing and mechanical thinning enhance forest stand resilience under a narrow range of wildfire scenarios

et al. 2022

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Increasing wildfire activity has spurred ecological resilience‐based management that aims to reduce the vulnerability of forest stands to wildfire by reducing the probability of crown fire. Targeted grazing is increasingly being used to build forest resilience to wildfire, either on its own or in combination with treatments such as mechanical thinning; however, it is unclear how effective this method is at altering the probability of crown fire in forest stands. We use crown fire simulation models to quantify to what extent targeted grazing, mechanical thinning targeting the vertical fuel stratum, and a combination of both treatments alter eastern ponderosa pine savanna stand resilience to wildfire by modeling their relative impacts on the fuel stratum gap and subsequent crown fire occurrence under six different wildfire risk scenarios generated by altering wind and fuel moisture conditions. We then model changes in the probability of crown fire occurrence resulting from treatments across 75 field‐sampled sites in the Pine Ridge region of Nebraska relative to predicted crown fire occurrence when sites are left untreated. We find that mechanical (vertical) thinning has the potential to alter the probability of crown fire in ponderosa pine stands to a much greater extent than targeted grazing. Combining both approaches had a slightly higher probability of reducing crown fire risk across the greatest range of wildfire risk scenarios. Across 75 sample sites, targeted grazing was only predicted to prevent crown fire occurrence at two sites expected to experience crown fire under observed stand conditions across all six of our wildfire risk scenarios. In contrast, targeted grazing combined with mechanical thinning was predicted to prevent crown fire at approximately half of the sites expected to experience crown fire under observed conditions for mild and moderate wildfire risk scenarios. Thus, targeted grazing should be combined with mechanical thinning to best enhance forest resilience to wildfire. No combination of targeted grazing or mechanical thinning was able to alter the probability of crown fire under wildfire risk scenarios most conducive to wildfire, confirming that relying solely on vertical thinning and targeted grazing is unlikely to sufficiently enhance resilience of forest stands to future wildfire conditions.

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Fire legacies in eastern ponderosa pine forests

Cited by 13 publications

References 71 publications

Ponderosa Pine Regeneration, Wildland Fuels Management, and Habitat Conservation: Identifying Trade-Offs Following Wildfire

Ponderosa Pine Regeneration, Wildland Fuels Management, and Habitat Conservation: Identifying Trade-Offs Following Wildfire

Resilience to Large, “Catastrophic” Wildfires in North America's Grassland Biome

Targeted grazing and mechanical thinning enhance forest stand resilience under a narrow range of wildfire scenarios

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