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Fire Regime - Report

Fire regimes of southern Rocky Mountain juniper communities

Written
April, 2026
Fire Regime Type
Report

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2026. Fire regimes of southern Rocky Mountain 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/southern-rocky-mountain-juniper

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

Map of the south-central United States showing the distribution of juniper woodland and savanna in southern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, and western Oklahoma.
Photo Credit
Map based on the LANDFIRE (2020) BpS data layer [1].

Figure 1—Land cover distribution of southern Rocky Mountain 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 11190 - Southern Rocky Mountain Juniper Woodland and Savanna
11190_24_25I-C322175032683125
11190_26I-B34322911313336
11190_27I-C332284952783125
11190_28I-C322125012682126
11190_34III-A883448739441145
Summary
Minimum3232291131115
Maximum8834450339833345
Mean4420732326651619
Median332174952682126
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