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Fire Regime - Report

Fire regimes of Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer communities

Written
February, 2026
Fire Regime Type
Report

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer communities. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/fire-regimes/great-basin-subalpine-mixed-conifer

A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer Biophysical Settings (BpS) provides estimates of fire regime characteristics (see LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings section). Figure 1 shows where these BpSs occur.

A map showing the distribution of Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer communities in the interior southwestern U.S.
Photo Credit
Map based on the LANDFIRE (2020) BpS data layer [1].

Figure 1—Land cover distribution of Great Basin subalpine mixed-conifer Biophysical Settings (BpS).

2020 LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings — Historical Fire Regime Characteristics
Biophysical SettingMean Fire Interval (years)Fire Severity Percent (%)
CodeFire Regime GroupLowMixedReplacementAllLowMixedReplacement
Series 10560 - Rocky Mountain Subalpine Mesic-Wet Spruce-Fir Forest and Woodland
10560_18IV-B68317614002080
10560_16_23V-A69982172100397
Series 10550 - Rocky Mountain Subalpine Dry-Mesic Spruce-Fir Forest and Woodland
10550_18IV-B68617513902080
10550_17IV-B167011761740199
10550_16_23_24V-A72422142080397
Summary
Minimum6831751390180
Maximum1670121721002099
Mean64621921740991
Median69981761740397
Percentage of fires in 3 fire severity classes, derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling. Replacement-severity fires cause >75% kill or top-kill of the upper canopy layer; mixed-severity fires cause 26%-75%; low-severity fires cause <26%.
LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings models and descriptions, [Online]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey; Arlington, VA: The Nature Conservancy, (Producers). Available: https://www.landfirereview.org/search.php [96496]

1. LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings layer, CONUS (LANDFIRE 2.2.0). In: LANDFIRE download data mosaic products, [Online]. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; U.S. Department of Agriculture (Producer). Available: https://www.landfire.gov/version_download.php [2023, June 20]. [98050]

2. LANDFIRE. 2020. Biophysical settings models and descriptions, [Online]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey; Arlington, VA: The Nature Conservancy, (Producers). Available: http://www.landfirereview.org/search.php [2022, February 2]. [96496]

Last updated April 28, 2026