Prescribed and natural fire help restore fire-adapted conditions in an Eastern Sierra Jeffrey pine forest

Abstract

In the western US, restoring forests to historical, fire-adapted conditions can reduce fire risk, but most fire-adapted restoration targets in California focus on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. By comparison, Eastern Sierra Jeffrey pine forests experience distinct climate and growing conditions, and both their historical structure and the effects of fire suppression are different from those of their west-side counterparts. In this study, our goals were (1) to use spatially-explicit forest reconstruction methods to estimate the historical, fire-adapted structure of eastern Sierra Jeffrey pine forests; (2) to describe the structural changes observed after 54–65 years of fire exclusion; and (3) to quantify the structural effects and restoration potential of 1–2 recent fire events that followed the fire exclusion period. At two sites in the Eastern Sierra near Mammoth Lakes, CA, we surveyed stands and collected tree ring series to establish tree ages and reconstruct maps of the forest at the end of the frequent-fire period (1941), after the period of fire exclusion (1995/2006), and in recent years (2018). We found that half a century of fire exclusion led to denser stands with fewer, smaller openings and larger clumps of trees, much like in the western Sierra. However, east-side forests were not as departed from fire-adapted conditions, and 1–2 fire events in recent years showed potential to restore many structural characteristics to their prior state. Our results can inform forest management decisions, and they support the use of prescribed fire and managed wildfire in forest restoration.

Citation

Kouba, Paige V.; Latimer, Andrew M.; Young, Derek J.N.; Odkins, Maxwell; Bell, Dawson M.; Clark, Ian R.; North, Malcolm P. 2025. Prescribed and natural fire help restore fire-adapted conditions in an Eastern Sierra Jeffrey pine forest. Forest Ecology and Management. 595: 123010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123010.