Research Database
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants
Year: 2024
Anthropogenic influences are altering fire regimes worldwide, resulting in an increase in the size and severity of wildfires. Simultaneously, throughout western North America, there is increasing recognition of the important role of Indigenous fire stewardship in shaping historical fire regimes and fire-adapted ecosystems. However, there is limited understanding of how ecosystems are affected by or recover from contemporary “megafires,” particularly in terms of understory plant communities that are critical to both biodiversity and Indigenous cultures. To address this gap, our collaborative…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Broadcast burning has persistent, but subtle, effects on understory composition and structure: Results of a long-term study in western Cascade forests
Year: 2024
Approaches to forest management have changed markedly in the Pacific Northwest in recent decades, yet legacies of past management persist on the landscape. Following clearcut logging, woody residues were typically burned to reduce future fire hazard, create planting spots, facilitate natural recruitment, and retard growth of competing vegetation. We asked whether legacies of broadcast burning persist in the forest understory during the early stages of stand closure, how they manifest structurally or compositionally, whether they are altered by subsequent management (pre-commercial thinning),…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Long-term frequent fire and cattle grazing alter dry forest understory vegetation
Year: 2024
Understanding fire and large herbivore interactions in interior western forests is critical, owing to the extensive and widespread co-occurrence of these two disturbance types and multiple present and future implications for forest resilience, conservation and restoration. However, manipulative studies focused on interactions and outcomes associated with these two disturbances are rare in forested rangelands. We investigated understory vegetation response to 5-year spring and fall prescribed fire and domestic cattle grazing exclusion in ponderosa pine stands and reported long-term responses,…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Contemporary forest restoration: A review emphasizing function
Year: 2014
The forest restoration challenge (globally 2 billion ha) and the prospect of changing climate with increasing frequency of extreme events argues for approaching restoration from a functional and landscape perspective. Because the practice of restoration utilizes many techniques common to silviculture, no clear line separates ordinary forestry practices from restoration. The distinction may be that extra-ordinary activities are required in the face of degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems. Restoration is driven by the desire to increase sustainability of ecosystems and their services and…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Vegetation Recovery and Fuel Reduction after Seasonal Burning of Western Juniper
Year: 2014
The decrease in fire activity has been recognized as a main cause of expansion of North American woodlands. Piñon-juniper habitat in the western United States has expanded in area nearly 10-fold since the late 1800s. Woodland control measures using chainsaws, heavy equipment, and prescribed fire are used to restore sagebrush steppe plant communities. We compared vegetation recovery following cutting and prescribed fire on three sites in late Phase 2 (mid succession) and Phase 3 (late succession) western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.) woodlands in southeast Oregon. Treatments were…
Publication Type: Journal Article