Fire regimes of northwestern high-elevation grassland communities
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of northwestern high-elevation grassland 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/northwestern-high-elevation-grasslands
A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for northwestern high-elevation grassland communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, LANDFIRE succession modeling of northwestern high-elevation grassland Biophysical Settings (BpS) provides estimates of fire regime characteristics (see LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings section). Figure 1 shows where these BpSs occur.
Figure 1—Land cover distribution of northwestern high-elevation grassland Biophysical Settings (BpS).
| Biophysical Setting | Mean Fire Interval (years) | Fire Severity Percent (%) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code | Fire Regime Group | Low | Mixed | Replacement | All | Low | Mixed | Replacement |
| Series 11450 - Rocky Mountain Subalpine-Montane Mesic Meadow | ||||||||
| 11450_9_10_19 | II-C | 160 | 40 | 32 | 0 | 20 | 80 | |
| Series 11400 - Northern Rocky Mountain Subalpine-Upper Montane Grassland | ||||||||
| 11400_9 | V-A | 1495 | 675 | 464 | 0 | 31 | 69 | |
| 11400_10_19 | IV-B | 146 | 146 | 0 | 0 | 100 | ||
| Summary | ||||||||
| Minimum | 160 | 40 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 69 | ||
| Maximum | 1495 | 675 | 464 | 0 | 31 | 100 | ||
| Mean | 828 | 287 | 214 | 0 | 17 | 83 | ||
| Median | 828 | 146 | 146 | 0 | 20 | 80 | ||
| 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]