Burn severity across forest types and burning conditions for forest treatments on the southern rockies Front Range
| Authors: | Sarah L. Hettema, Camille Stevens-Rumann, Hannah Van Dusen, Michael A. Battaglia, Anthony G. Vorster, Jens Stevens |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123529 |
| Source: | Forest Ecology and Management |
Abstract
As extreme wildfire events become more frequent, understanding how forest treatments interact with wildfire is increasingly critical. However, assessing wildfire-treatment outcomes is challenging due to interactions among treatments, weather, topography, and fuels. We investigated wildfires from southern Wyoming to northern New Mexico to evaluate under what conditions treatments reduce the ecological impacts of fire, as measured by remotely sensed burn severity. We determined (1) factors influencing the relationship between treatments and burn severity, (2) how burn severity differed across forest and treatment types, and (3) how extreme burning conditions influenced outcomes. Treatment effects varied by forest types, with generally lower burn severity outcomes in lower elevation, frequent fire forest types compared to spruce - fir and lodgepole pine (higher elevation, infrequent fire) forests. Areas that previously burned at low to moderate severity or with prescribed fire had the lowest burn severity outcomes across forest types and even during extreme burning conditions. In contrast, treatments without fire (tree removal and/or surface fuels reduction) had mixed effects across forest types and had equivalent burn severity to untreated areas in infrequent fire forests during extreme burning conditions.