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RWPE - Restoring Whitebark Pine Ecosystems

Status
Ongoing
Start Date
January, 1993

Evaluating effects of various prescribed burning and silvicultural techniques used for restoring whitebark pine ecosystems (RWPE)

The loss of whitebark pine is serious for upper subalpine ecosystems because it is considered a keystone species across most of its range, producing large seeds that are an important food source for more than 110 animal species. This extensive, long-term study, documents the effects of several ecosystem restoration treatments implement at five high elevation sites in the northern Rocky Mountains. These treatments included prescribed fire, thinning, selection cuttings, and fuel enhancement cuttings. We evaluated fuel consumption, tree mortality, and undergrowth vegetation response measured at three time periods. There is a management guide that presents statistical summaries, treatment descriptions, and photographs by treatment unit at each time interval. This guide is intended as a reference to identify possible impacts of a restoration treatment at a fine scale by matching a proposed treatment for a stand to the most similar treatment unit presented in this report based on vegetation conditions, fire regime and geographical area. Since data summaries are for individual treatment units, there are no analyses of differences across treatment units or across research sites.

For geographical information on this project and how it fits with other Fire Lab Whitebark Pine research, visit the Whitebark Pine Story Map.

Whitebark Pine Story Map RWPE - Photo Gallery

Principal Investigator: Robert Keane

Funding Contributor: This project was partially funded by the National Fire Plan

Project Years: 1993-present

Key Personnel

Principal Investigator

Contact
Sarah Flanary

Research Staff

Collaborators

  • Research Collaborators:

    Todd Carlson, Courtney Couch, Daniel Covington, Laura Dickinson, Janice Garner, Myron Holland, Violet Holley, Curtis Johnson, Cat Maxwell, Ben McShan, Jim Menakis, Scott Mincemoyer, Kirsten Schmidt, Virginia Arensberg, Dennis LeMond, Nadev Kaufman, Cassandra Koerner, and Wayne Lyngholm, Joe Scott, Eva Karau, Alisa Keyser, Mick Harrington, Lisa Holsinger, Matt Rollins

  • Contributor(s):

    Karen Harvey, Steve Munson, Bob Lippincott, Jon Weston, Chris Ourada, and Vicki Edwards of the Clearwater National Forest; Barbara Levesque, Breck Hudson, Diana Schuldt, and Terry Black of the Salmon-Challis National Forest, Leslie Anderson, Cathy Stewart, and Bruce “Buster” Windhorst, Bitterroot National Forest.

  • Funding Contributor(s):

    • National Fire Plan

  • Additional Funding: 

    • This project was partially funded by the NFP.
       

Data and Tools

Audio and Video

Select Publications

Additional Select Publications

  • Keane, R. E., S.F. Arno, and C. Stewart. 1996. Restoration of upper subalpine whitebark pine ecosystems in western Montana. Pages 31-26 in Proceedings of the 43 annual Western Internation Forest Disease Work Conference. Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, MD, USA., Whitefish, Montana, USA.

  • Keane, R.E. and S.F. Arno. 1996. Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) ecosystem restoration in western Montana. In: Arno, S.F. and Hardy, C.C., editors, The use of fire in forest restoration, a general session at the annual meeting of the Society of Ecosystem Restoration "Taking a broader view". Sept 14-16, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report INT-GTR-341. Pages 51-54.

  • Keane, R.E., S.F. Arno and C. Stewart. 1995. Restoration of upper subalpine whitebark pine ecosystems in western Montana. In: Mathiasen, R.L. editor, Proceedings of the 43 annual Western International Forest Disease Work Conference, Whitefish, Montana, USA. August 29-31, 1995. Pages 105-112.

  • Keane, R.E. and S.F. Arno. 2000. Restoration of whitebark pine ecosystems in western Montana and central Idaho. In: Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters 1999 National Convention. Portland, OR. Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, Washington DC. Pages 324-330.

  • Keane, R.E., S.F. Arno, and C. Stewart. 2000. Ecosystem-based management in the whitebark pine zone. In: Smith, H.Y. (ed.) 2000. The Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project -- what we have learned: symposium proceedings; 1999 May 18-20; Missoula, MT. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Proceedings RMRS-P-17 Pages 36-41

  • Keane, R., and S. F. Arno. 1999. Restoration of whitebark pine ecosystems in western Montana and central Idaho. Pages 324-330 in SAF 1999 National Convention. SAF, Portland, Oregon.

  • Tomback, D., S. F. Arno, and R. E. Keane. 2001. The compelling case for management intervention. Pages 3-28 in D. Tomback, Stephen F. Arno, and R. E. Keane, editors. Whitebark pine communities: Ecology and Restoration. Island Press, Washington, DC USA.

Last updated March 25, 2025
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