Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, Projects

Fire Regimes and Forest Structure of Utah and Eastern Nevada:
A Multi-Scaled History from Tree Rings
Principle Investigators:
Emily Heyerdahl, Research Forester, Rocky Mountain Research Station Fire Lab
Stanley Kitchen, Research Botanist, Rocky Mountain Research Station Shrub Sciences Lab Peter M. Brown, Director, Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Project Funded by:

Results | Products | Personnel | Some Photographs

INTRODUCTION Before this project, Utah and eastern Nevada lacked dendrochronologically crossdated, site-specific fire and vegetation histories that provide crucial information for scientifically based fire, land, and natural resource management. Historical data are increasingly viewed as essential to assess the need for active management of different vegetation types (for example, whether fuel treatments or wildland fire use is needed) and for justifying management actions within agencies and to the public. Fire regimes (frequency, size, and severity) vary across space and through time in response to factors such as vegetation types, landscape physiography (e.g., elevation and topography), and longer-term climate change. While 20th century records can help us understand the effects of recent fire exclusion on factors such as forest and fuel structure, we must look over longer time scales to better understand the influence of various forcings, such as climate changes and human land use, on fire occurrence and behavior. Our three-year study was funded by the Joint Fire Sciences Program, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fishlake National Forest, and the Bureau of Land Management.

RESULTS The project began in the summer of 2002, with pilot funding provided by the Fishlake National Forest. We completed analyses of data from 16 sites that span ecological and climatic gradients present in the region along with three smaller units that were collected to address specific management issues (Figure, Table). Within each of the larger sites, we systematically sampled tree-recruitment and fire-scar data within plots located on 500 m grids that span ranges of variation in topography and forest type. At each plot we used n-tree density-adapted sampling to characterize forest age structure, composition, and tree density. We sampled a total of over 12,000 trees from over 400 plots from across a broad range of topography and 17 different biophysical settings ranging from sagebrush steppe to spruce-fir forests.

PRODUCTS A final report was submitted to the Bureau of Land Management in March, 2006 (warning: the file is 12 Megs in size). This is the preliminary report that will be become a General Technical Report describing data from the entire project. A final report was submitted to the Joint Fire Sciences Program in December, 2006. A paper was published in early 2008 on fire/climate relationships, and other papers from the research will be posted here as they become available.

Site Code	Watershed and Mountain Range	Land Ownership	Plots	Trees
WCH	Peter Sinks, Wasatch Range	Wasatch-Cache NF	30	667
MUR	Uinta River/Pole Creek, Middle Uinta Mountains	Ashley NF	30	872
BRO	Dry Creek/Brownie Canyon, East Uinta Mountains	Ashley NF	30	890
WUN	Coop Creek, West Uinta Mountains	Wasatch-Cache NF	25	770
TVP	Tavaputs Plateau	BLM	3	150
BCL	Pine Springs Canyon, East Tavaputs Plateau	BLM	29	936
EPH	Ephraim Canyon, Wasatch Plateau	Manti-La Sal NF	29	886
BMC	Mill Creek/Burnt Mill Canyon, Snake Range	Great Basin NP	24	677
OWP	Old Woman Plateau, Wasatch Plateau	Fishlake NF	1	17
UFR	Mytoge Mountain, Sevier Plateau	Fishlake NF	15	466
WAH	Lawson Cove, Wah Wah Mountains	BLM	24	743
BOM	Fish Creek/Donkey Point, Boulder Mountain	Dixie NF	30	994
MON	Monroe Mountain	Fishlake NF	0	12
RAY	Ray Mesa, La Sal Mountains	BLM	5	127
INC	Indian Creek, Tushar Mountains	Fishlake NF	5	150
RBC	South Beaver Creek, Tushar Mountains	Fishlake NF	45	1344
HNR	Willow Creek, Henry Mountains	BLM	30	799
PSG	Meadow Creek Canyon, Paunsaugunt Plateau	Dixie NF	29	860
ABM	Pine Ridge/North Creek, Abajo Mountains	Manti-La Sal NF	30	857
	Total Plots and Trees Sampled for the Project		411	12,055

PERSONNEL
Emily K. Heyerdahl is a Research Forester at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, in Missoula, Montana. Her research focuses on understanding climate forcing of historical fire regimes across western North America. She has worked closely with forest managers in developing local fire and forest histories across a range of forest types in the Pacific Northwest, the southern-interior of British Columbia, the US northern Rockies, and the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. She is an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University. Email: eheryerdahl [at] fs [dot] fed [dot] us.
Stanley Kitchen is a Research Botanist at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, in Provo, Utah. He has a deep knowledge of the ecology of Utah's forest and woodland ecosystems. Relevant research explores species and community level responses to various disturbance factors, including fire, in shrublands, woodlands, and dry forests of the eastern Great Basin. He is also manager of the Desert Experimental Range and RMRS Station Coordinator for the Region 4 Research Natural Area Program. Email: skitchen [at] fs [dot] fed [dot] us.
Peter M. Brown is Director and President of Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research. A major emphasis of his current research involves reconstructing fire history, fire climatology, and forest dynamics in forest of Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, New Mexico, and California. He is an Affiliate Faculty member at Colorado State University, the University of Idaho, and the University of Arizona. Email: pmb [at] rmtrr [dot] org.
Marc H. Weber is a Biologist at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, and was the principle research support for the project (he is now working with the LANDFIRE project). His thesis examined forest disturbance following burial by mudflow at Mount St. Helens National Monument. Prior to working at the Fire Sciences Lab, he worked with the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program at the PNW Forestry Sciences Lab. Email: mhweber [at] fs [dot] fed [dot] us.

SOME PHOTOGRAPHS

Emily Heyerdahl cutting a cross section from the catface of a stump. Two parallel cuts are made across the area with the best scar record followed by plunge cuts to remove the partial cross section.	James Riser sawing partial cross sections from a snag. Note that he is cutting two sections from opposite sides of the catface to obtain the most complete records from this tree. Almost all of the cross sections we sampled were cut from dead trees.
Stan Kitchen at a bristlecone pine in the Escalante Mountains.	Brandon Collins and James Riser coring trees in the Mytoge Mountains near Fish Lake. Brandon is using the power increment borer setup and James is using a bent borer handle to sample the trees at about 10 cm up from their bases.
Looking for sites in the Mytoges, early summer 2003.	At the top of the Meadow Creek transect on Paunsaugunt Plateau, just around the corner from Bryce Canyon National Park.
The crew on Boulder Mountain, August 2004.	We came across the most amazing piece of field gear on the Abajos transect. Quite the view of southern Utah for an nice afternoon break.