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Fire Regime - Report

Fire regimes of limber pine communities

Written
March, 2026
Fire Regime Type
Report

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of limber pine 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/limber-pine

A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for limber pine communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of limber pine 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 limber pine communities in the interior western U.S.
Photo Credit
Map based on the LANDFIRE (2020) BpS data layer [1].

Figure 1—Land cover distribution of limber pine Biophysical Settings (BpS).

2020 LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings — Historical Fire Regime Characteristics
Biophysical SettingMean Fire Interval (years)Fire Severity Percent (%)
CodeFire Regime GroupLowMixedReplacementAllLowMixedReplacement
Series 10490 - Rocky Mountain Foothill Limber Pine-Juniper Woodland
10490_19_20_21_23_28_29V-A38538500100
10490_16_22V-A21621600100
Summary
Minimum21621600100
Maximum38538500100
Mean30130100100
Median30130100100
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