Fire

Abstract

In some areas, many aspen stands are all the same age, dating from a single great fire or a year of widespread fires (fig. 1). The 1879 fire in the Jackson Hole region of Wyoming (Loope and Gruell 1973) and the 1904 fires in Arizona's White Mountains (Kallander 1969) are examples. Choate (1966) found that almost all aspen stands in New Mexico were even-aged, many of them originating after fires dating since the mid-1800s. Some authors (Fetherolf 1917, Langenheim 1962, Marr 1961, Reed 1971), considered aspen to be climax in some habitats. Others, notably Baker (19251, felt that all aspen forests are successional and firedependent in the Interior West, and, if not burned, that they would be replaced by conifers (see the VEGETATION ASSOCIATIONS chapter). Baker (1925) attributed the apparent aspen climax in some areas to the virtual absence of coniferous seed sources. However, he considered aspen to be a minor codominant species in some coniferous climaxes.

Parent Publication

• Aspen: Ecology and management in the western United States

Citation

Jones, John R.; DeByle, Norbert V. 1985. Fire. In: DeByle, Norbert V.; Winokur, Robert P., editors. Aspen: Ecology and management in the western United States. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RM-119. Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colo. p. 77-81