Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range.
Large recent fires in the western U.S. have contributed to a perception that fire exclusion has caused an unprecedented occurrence of uncharacteristically severe fires, particularly in lower elevation dry pine forests. In the absence of long-term fire severity records, it is unknown how short-term t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4175072?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818318682003079168 |
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| author | Rosemary L Sherriff Rutherford V Platt Thomas T Veblen Tania L Schoennagel Meredith H Gartner |
| author_facet | Rosemary L Sherriff Rutherford V Platt Thomas T Veblen Tania L Schoennagel Meredith H Gartner |
| author_sort | Rosemary L Sherriff |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Large recent fires in the western U.S. have contributed to a perception that fire exclusion has caused an unprecedented occurrence of uncharacteristically severe fires, particularly in lower elevation dry pine forests. In the absence of long-term fire severity records, it is unknown how short-term trends compare to fire severity prior to 20th century fire exclusion. This study compares historical (i.e. pre-1920) fire severity with observed modern fire severity and modeled potential fire behavior across 564,413 ha of montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. We used forest structure and tree-ring fire history to characterize fire severity at 232 sites and then modeled historical fire-severity across the entire study area using biophysical variables. Eighteen (7.8%) sites were characterized by low-severity fires and 214 (92.2%) by mixed-severity fires (i.e. including moderate- or high-severity fires). Difference in area of historical versus observed low-severity fire within nine recent (post-1999) large fire perimeters was greatest in lower montane forests. Only 16% of the study area recorded a shift from historical low severity to a higher potential for crown fire today. An historical fire regime of more frequent and low-severity fires at low elevations (<2260 m) supports a convergence of management goals of ecological restoration and fire hazard mitigation in those habitats. In contrast, at higher elevations mixed-severity fires were predominant historically and continue to be so today. Thinning treatments at higher elevations of the montane zone will not return the fire regime to an historic low-severity regime, and are of questionable effectiveness in preventing severe wildfires. Based on present-day fuels, predicted fire behavior under extreme fire weather continues to indicate a mixed-severity fire regime throughout most of the montane forest zone. Recent large wildfires in the Front Range are not fundamentally different from similar events that occurred historically under extreme weather conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:57:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fa05aae2b7614642ba55e72cd13e8390 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:57:06Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-fa05aae2b7614642ba55e72cd13e83902022-12-21T23:51:45ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0199e10697110.1371/journal.pone.0106971Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range.Rosemary L SherriffRutherford V PlattThomas T VeblenTania L SchoennagelMeredith H GartnerLarge recent fires in the western U.S. have contributed to a perception that fire exclusion has caused an unprecedented occurrence of uncharacteristically severe fires, particularly in lower elevation dry pine forests. In the absence of long-term fire severity records, it is unknown how short-term trends compare to fire severity prior to 20th century fire exclusion. This study compares historical (i.e. pre-1920) fire severity with observed modern fire severity and modeled potential fire behavior across 564,413 ha of montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. We used forest structure and tree-ring fire history to characterize fire severity at 232 sites and then modeled historical fire-severity across the entire study area using biophysical variables. Eighteen (7.8%) sites were characterized by low-severity fires and 214 (92.2%) by mixed-severity fires (i.e. including moderate- or high-severity fires). Difference in area of historical versus observed low-severity fire within nine recent (post-1999) large fire perimeters was greatest in lower montane forests. Only 16% of the study area recorded a shift from historical low severity to a higher potential for crown fire today. An historical fire regime of more frequent and low-severity fires at low elevations (<2260 m) supports a convergence of management goals of ecological restoration and fire hazard mitigation in those habitats. In contrast, at higher elevations mixed-severity fires were predominant historically and continue to be so today. Thinning treatments at higher elevations of the montane zone will not return the fire regime to an historic low-severity regime, and are of questionable effectiveness in preventing severe wildfires. Based on present-day fuels, predicted fire behavior under extreme fire weather continues to indicate a mixed-severity fire regime throughout most of the montane forest zone. Recent large wildfires in the Front Range are not fundamentally different from similar events that occurred historically under extreme weather conditions.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4175072?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Rosemary L Sherriff Rutherford V Platt Thomas T Veblen Tania L Schoennagel Meredith H Gartner Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. PLoS ONE |
| title | Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. |
| title_full | Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. |
| title_fullStr | Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. |
| title_short | Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. |
| title_sort | historical observed and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the colorado front range |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4175072?pdf=render |
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