Non-native plant invasions in managed and protected ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests of the Colorado Front Range

Fornwalt, Paula J.; Kaufmann, Merrill R.; Huckaby, Laurie S.; Stoker, Jason M.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.

doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(02)00456-5

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Protracted lack of fire may further reduce regeneration microsites, as accumulating litter layers become too thick to support plant establishment even given sufficient propagules (Laughlin et al 2004). Exotic plants are particularly troubling because they may persist after wildfire or forest management activities designed to restore old growth (Fornwalt et al 2003). Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) provides an example of potential effects of exotic plants, as this species establishes dense stands of continuous and highly flammable fuel that can hinder the restoration of a low-intensity surface fire regime (Keeley 2006).…”

Section: Understory Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mechanized equipment generally needed to conduct thinning operations at ecologically meaningful scales also is prohibited in many wilderness areas and other protected areas that may contain old forests jeopardized by wildfire (Fulé et al 2006). An additional disadvantage of thinning is that it causes disturbance by road construction and mechanized equipment, which may facilitate exotic species invasion (Fornwalt et al 2003). Despite these disadvantages, there often is little choice but to conduct thinning if old growth is to be protected from eradication by severe fire and if key components of old-growth ecosystems (e.g., canopy openings) are to be restored.…”

Section: Mechanical Tree Thinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Past, Present, and Future Old Growth in Frequent-fire Conifer Forests of the Western United States

Abella¹,

Covington²,

Fulé³

et al. 2007

E&S

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Section: Understory Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mechanical Tree Thinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Past, Present, and Future Old Growth in Frequent-fire Conifer Forests of the Western United States

Abella¹,

Covington²,

Fulé³

et al. 2007

E&S

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“…Only a handful of exotic species were found, with Taraxacum officinale F. H. Wigg and Verbascum thapsus L. being among the most common. A detailed analysis of exotics is reported in Fornwalt et al (2003).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of past logging and grazing on understory plant communities in a montane Colorado forest

et al. 2008

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Throughout Pinus ponderosa-Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of the southern Colorado Front Range, USA, intense logging and domestic grazing began at the time of Euro-American settlement in the late 1800s and continued until the early 1900s. We investigated the long-term impacts of these settlement-era activities on understory plant communities by comparing understory composition at a historically logged and grazed site to that of an environmentally similar site which was protected from past use. We found that species richness and cover within functional groups rarely differed between sites in either upland or riparian areas. Multivariate analyses revealed little difference in species composition between sites on uplands, though compositional differences were apparent in riparian zones. Our findings suggest that settlement-era logging and grazing have had only minor long-term impacts on understories of upland Front Range P. ponderosa-P. menziesii forests, though they have had a greater long-term influence on riparian understories, where these activities were likely the most intense.

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“…Overstories are dominated primarily by ponderosa pine and secondarily by Douglas-fir [35]. Understories are diverse communities of graminoids, forbs, and relatively low-statured shrubs [36,37]. The site's disturbance history is also characteristic of Front Range dry conifer forests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The site experienced very few wildfires beginning in the late 1800s (that is, until the 2002 Hayman Fire), likely due in large part to the fire suppression policy that began in the early 1900s [43]. Logging and grazing are thought to have been rampant at the site from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and also may have contributed to the general lack of wildfires during this period [35][36][37]43]. To our knowledge, logging and grazing have not occurred since this time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overstory Structure and Surface Cover Dynamics in the Decade Following the Hayman Fire, Colorado

Fornwalt

Stevens‐Rumann

Collins

2018

Forests

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Abstract:The 2002 Hayman Fire burned with mixed-severity across a 400-ha dry conifer study site in Colorado, USA, where overstory tree and surface cover attributes had been recently measured on 20 0.1-ha permanent plots. We remeasured these plots repeatedly during the first post-fire decade to examine how the attributes changed through time and whether changes were influenced by fire severity. We found that most attributes were temporally dynamic and that fire severity shaped their dynamics. For example, low-severity plots experienced a modest reduction in live overstory density due to both immediate and delayed tree mortality, and no change in live overstory basal area through time; in contrast, high-severity plots experienced an immediate and total loss of live overstory density and basal area. Large snag density in low-severity plots did not vary temporally because snag recruitment balanced snag loss; however, in high-severity plots large snag density increased markedly immediately post-fire and then declined by about half by post-fire year ten as snags fell. Mineral soil cover increased modestly immediately post-fire in low-severity plots and substantially immediately post-fire in high-severity plots, but changed little in ensuing years for either severity class. By incorporating pre-fire and repeatedly-measured post-fire data for a range of severities, our study uniquely contributes to the current understanding of wildfire effects in dry conifer forests and should be of interest to managers, researchers, and others.

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Non-native plant invasions in managed and protected ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests of the Colorado Front Range

Cited by 36 publications

References 25 publications

Past, Present, and Future Old Growth in Frequent-fire Conifer Forests of the Western United States

Past, Present, and Future Old Growth in Frequent-fire Conifer Forests of the Western United States

Effects of past logging and grazing on understory plant communities in a montane Colorado forest

Overstory Structure and Surface Cover Dynamics in the Decade Following the Hayman Fire, Colorado

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