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Fire Regime - Report

Fire regimes of intermountain basins juniper communities

Written
April, 2026
Fire Regime Type
Report

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of intermountain basins juniper 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/intermountain-basins-juniper

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

Image of a map of the western United States showing a scattering of juniper communities scattered throughout the Rocky Mountain states.
Photo Credit
Map based on the LANDFIRE (2020) BpS data layer [1].

Figure 1—Land cover distribution of intermountain basins juniper Biophysical Settings (BpS). Numbers indicate LANDFIRE map zones.

2020 LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings — Historical Fire Regime Characteristics
Biophysical SettingMean Fire Interval (years)Fire Severity Percent (%)
CodeFire Regime GroupLowMixedReplacementAllLowMixedReplacement
Series 11150 - Inter-Mountain Basins Juniper Savanna
11150_10_19III-B560438824189344323
11150_13III-B567427807187334423
11150_14III-B555439836189344323
11150_15_16_23_24III-A12621833364512920
11150_17III-B553428815186344323
11150_21_22III-A12321235564523018
11150_28III-B276434337112412633
Summary
Minimum12321233364332618
Maximum567439836189524433
Mean394371615142403723
Median553428807186344323
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 May 7, 2026