Treesearch

Surface fuel deposition and decomposition rates are important to fire management and research because they can define the longevity of fuel treatments in time and space and they can be used to design, build, test, and validate complex fire and ecosystem models useful in evaluating management alternatives. We determined rates of surface fuel litterfall and decomposition for a number of major forest types that span a wide range of biophysical conditions in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. We measured fuel deposition for more than 10 years with semi-annual collections of fallen biomass...

Mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins can cause extensive tree mortality in ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws., forests in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. Most studies that have examined stand susceptibility to mountain pine beetle have been conducted in even-aged stands. Land managers increasingly practice uneven-aged management.We established 84 clusters of four plots, one where bark beetle-caused mortality was present and three uninfested plots. For all plot trees we recorded species, tree diameter, and crown position and for ponderosa pine...

Wildfire severity and subsequent ecological effects may be influenced by prior land management, via modification of forest structure and lingering changes in fuels. In 2002, the Hayman wildfire burned as a low to moderate-severity surface fire through a 21-year pine regeneration experiment with two overstory harvest cuttings (shelterwood, seed-tree) and two site preparations (scarified, unscarified) that had been applied in a mature ponderosa pine forest in the montane zone of the Colorado Front Range in 1981. We used this event to examine how pre-fire fine fuels, surface-level burn...

We inferred climate effects on fire occurrence from 1630 to 1900 for a new set of crossdated fire-scar chronologies from 18 forested sites in Utah and one site in eastern Nevada. Years with regionally synchronous fires (31 years with fire at ≥20% of sites) occurred during drier than average summers and years with no fires at any site (100 years) were wetter than average. Antecedent wet summers were associated with regional-fire years in mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forest types, possibly by affecting fine fuel amount and continuity. NINO3 (an index of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation,...

One hundred years ago, the U.S. Forest Service launched a research program on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest to enhance the management of southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. This research program was the first scientific venture of its kind in the United States at the time it was initiated in 1908 - and it is now the oldest in the country. Much of the early research was undertaken by G. A. “Gus” Pearson, who established the experimental forest in 1908 and guided its research program until his retirement in 1945. Research conducted at Fort Valley can be grouped into...

Fire research began on the Fort Valley and Long Valley Experimental Forests in the mid 1970s. The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies in the Southwest (BIA and state) had been utilizing prescribed fire to reduce piled hazardous fuels from harvesting. Most managers had not viewed the use of prescribed fire to reduce natural fuels on a broad scale positively. The use of rotational prescribed burning has been investigated for over 30 years to determine the long-term effects of the reintroduction of this natural event. This paper summarizes the events that led up to the establishment of...

When G. A. Pearson arrived at Fort Valley to establish the first Forest Service Experiment Station he found many open park-like stands similar to those in Figure 1. Within two years, Pearson had outlined the major factors detrimental to the establishment of ponderosa pine seedlings (Pearson 1910). During the next almost 40 years, he wrote many articles on methods of cutting, tree planting, thinning, raising seedlings, natural regeneration and other aspects of forest management. His findings are contained in his landmark treatise, "Management of Ponderosa Pine in the Southwest" (1950)....

Litterfall and decomposition rates of the organic matter that comprise forest fuels are important to fire management, because they define fuel treatment longevity and provide parameters to design, test, and validate ecosystem models. This study explores the environmental factors that control litterfall and decomposition in the context of fuel management for several major forest types in the northern Rocky Mountains (Idaho and Montana), USA. Litterfall was measured for more than 10 years using semiannual collections of six fine fuel components (fallen foliage, twigs, branches, large...

The landscape surrounding the Fort Valley Experimental Forest in northern Arizona has changed dramatically in the past decade due to the Fort Valley Restoration Project, a collaboration between the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership, Coconino National Forest, and Rocky Mountain Research Station. Severe wildfires in 1996 sparked community concern to start restoration treatments in the Fort Valley area in 1997 with various thinning prescriptions. Thinned areas have had both pile and broadcast burns. This area was chosen because of the high tree density, threat of wildfire moving upslope...

This poster presents the continuing cooperative relationship between the Fort Valley Experimental Forest (FVEF), Coconino National Forest (CNF), USFS Region 3, and the long-term partnerships with the Museum of the Northern Arizona and the NAU School of Forestry. Fort Valley was initially named the Coconino Experiment Station and funds were channeled through Region (then District) 3 and the CNF. CNF Ranger William Wilson assisted G.A. Pearson that first winter at Fort Valley. Since Fort Valley’s establishment as an experimental area, Forest Service Research has worked in conjunction with...