Restoration Initiatives
Monitoring vegetation response in the Warm Fire burn area
Land managers have expressed the need to determine relationships between tree damage and tree mortality while characterizing changes in understory vegetation and fuels across burned areas. In a collaborative effort with Northern Arizona University and the U.S. Forest Service, we are building a scientific foundation to address these issues by monitoring post-fire recovery in the Warm Fire that burned in the summer of 2006.
Introduction
On June 8th, 2006, a lightning strike ignited the Warm fire on the northeastern edge of the Kaibab Plateau. The fire was managed as a wildland fire use fire for two-and-a-half weeks and resulted in approximately 19,500 acres of predominantly low and moderate severity fire. Two weeks later, weather conditions changed considerably, and the Warm fire exceeded its maximum manageable area and was declared a wildland fire. The fire burned in total 59,000 acres with several very large high severity patches. Safety concerns led to a complete evacuation of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, second-guessing of Forest Service policy by the public, and controversy about the costs and benefits of wildland fire vs. alternative forest management techniques across the Southwest. It is important to understand the ecological implications of this fire and to apply that knowledge to post-fire rehabilitation activities.
Approach
In 2007, we initiated a collaborative effort with Northern Arizona University and the U.S. Forest Service funded by the Joint fire Science Program to build a science foundation around four major research needs expressed by land managers and other stakeholders focusing on fire management and forest restoration issues across the Kaibab Plateau. Land managers and stakeholders have expressed the need to:
- Characterize changes in understory vegetation (including changes in natives and invasives due to Lolium multiflorum,)
- Assess plant community composition, percent cover of vegetation, diversity and density across the burn area and over time,
- Determine relationships between post-fire tree crown-mortality and tree mortality over time; assessing models predicting pine mortality,
- Assess changes in fuels across the burn area and over time,
- Refine burn severity evaluations of the Warm fire.
Melissa McMaster, a graduate student at Northern Arizona University, is currently leading this effort to collect monitoring data within the Warm Fire that will clarify the consequences of intense fire in northern Arizona ponderosa pine forests and provide data important in ongoing discussions about post-fire rehabilitation. The focus of her thesis will be on the understory vegetation response and particularly, the effects of a reseeding/restoration effort where high severity areas were seeded with a non-native grass, Lolium multiflorum.
Future work
We have completed two seasons of assessment with a total of 100 plots spread throughout the high severity portions of both the wildland (seeded) and WFU (not seeded) sections of the fire, low severity areas and controls outside the burn. With two more field seasons funded by the JFSP, we will continue collecting data on the understory vegetation, overstory stand characteristics, pine mortality and fuels until 2012. We will use this information to guide pro-active forest restoration efforts as well as post-fire rehabilitation efforts in the region.
