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Fire Ecology [Jump to publications]

Fire has been a key ecosystem process in Pacific Northwest (PNW) forests for thousands of years. Fire regimes in the PNW range from very infrequent stand-replacing fires in maritime climates (westside forests), to low- and mixed-severity fires in drier climates (eastside forests), to patchy isolated fires of varying severity at high elevations. FME scientists, often working closely with cooperators at the US Forest Service Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab, reconstruct fire regimes from the distant (Holocene) and the recent (~1700-1900) past, and analyze contemporary fire regimes, to understand fire’s ecological role in PNW forests and inform its management.

Field-based studies

Historical fire regimes [Prichard, Kopper]
A 10,500-yr fire and vegetation history of a montane site in the North Cascade Range, Washington State was reconstructed based on lake sediment charcoal, macrofossil, and pollen records. Fire frequency varies throughout the record, with significantly shorter mean fire return intervals in the early Holocene than the mid and late Holocene. Charcoal peaks are significantly correlated with an initial increase in macrofossil accumulation rates followed by a decrease, likely corresponding to tree mortality following fire. Climate was seen to be a key driver in vegetation and fire regimes, but fire and other disturbances altered forest vegetation at shorter time scales, which may have mediated local fire regimes. For example, dominance of P. contorta in the early Holocene forests may have been reinforced by its susceptibility to frequent stand-replacing fires.

An ongoing study of historical fires in the Stehekin Valley, North Cascades National Park, combines techniques associated with both low-severity (fire-scar data) and high-severity (age-cohoert analysis) fire reconstructions. Stehekin exemplifies the wildland-urban interface: a protected area that abuts a town directly, such that naturally occurring wildland fires can quickly become a threat to a vulnerable community. Historical fire in Stehekin was a spatially heterogeneous mix of high- and low-severity fire, with an equally complex mix of controls, from climate to rugged topography to patchy discontinuous vegetation.

Fuels, fuel treatments, carbon, and fire severity [Kopper, Hudek, C Restaino, Raymond, J Restaino]
Prescribed fire and other fuel treatments change the abundance, structure, and spatial patterns of fuels, affecting fire behavior and fire spread differently in different vegetation types. FME scientists did a meta-analysis of the effects of prescribed fire, showing its varying effects across vegetation types and informing a series of field studies of the ecological effects of PNW wildfires and how they are mediated by fuel treatments.

A study of forest structure and composition after three mixed-severity fires in the Cascade Range, east side, showed that whereas fire intensity is tightly coupled with tree mortality, its effects on post-fire fuel legacies is much less predictable. A comparison of treated vs. untreated areas within the Tripod Complex Fire in north-central Washington showed drastic reductions in fire severity in treated areas with substantial regeneration but a dearth of woody surface fuels. In contrast, fuel treatments on the Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon had variable effects, with thinned stands without surface-fuel removal experiencing the most severe fire. A study of the effects of fuel treatments on carbon stores had similarly variable outcomes, with expectations of carbon source vs sink differing among vegetation type and structure and stand age.

Modeling studies

Fire history [McKenzie, Kellogg, Kennedy]
The FME lab has custody of a unique and spatially explicit fire-history database for eastern Washington that is also unprecedented in its extent. Using this database in a series of five papers, FME scientists (1) identified spatial scaling laws that revealed basic errors in most estimates of fire frequency, or fire-return intervals, in low-severity fire regimes, (2) showed how environmental controls on fire change across spatial scales, and (3) identified phase transitions between top-down and bottom-up controls as a fuction of climate and topographic complexity. Two of these papers won awards from US-IALE as “outstanding landscape ecology paper of the year”.

Contemporary fire regimes [Raymond, Wright]
Drawing on a set of geospatial databases for the PNW, along with climate-driven area-burned projections by other lab scientists, FME researchers simulated regional-scale fuel succession and carbon dynamics as a function of changing fire regimes. A state-and-transition model of landscape fuel succession showed a variety of different future scenarios that may ensue from fuel treatments. Simulations of carbon dynamics with shorter fire cycles in the future showed the sensitivity of carbon sequestration to the regional distribution of stand ages.
Fire Ecology Publications

2014

Cansler, C.A., and D. McKenzie. 2014. Burn severity and severity patterns in the northern Cascade Range, Washington. Mountain Views 8:14-17.

Cansler, C.A., and D. McKenzie. 2014. Climate, fire size, and biophysical setting control fire severity and spatial pattern in the northern Cascade Range, USA. Ecological Applications 24:1037-1056.

French, N.H.F., D. McKenzie, R.D. Ottmar, J.L. McCarthy, R.A. Norheim, N. Hammermesh, and A.J. Soja. 2014. A US national fuels database and map for calculating carbon emissions from wildland and prescribed fire. Pages 522-529 in Fourth Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference Proceedings. Raleigh, NC, Feb 18-22, 2013, and St. Petersburg, Russia, July 1-4, 2013.

Kennedy, M.C., and M. Johnson. 2014. Fuel treatment prescriptions alter spatial patterns of fire severity around the wildland–urban interface during the Wallow Fire, Arizona, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 318:122-132

Prichard, S. J., and M.C. Kennedy. 2014. Fuel treatments and landform modify landscape patterns of burn severity in an extreme fire event. Ecological Applications 24(3): 571-90.

Restaino, J.C., and D.L. Peterson. 2014. Short-term fuel treatment effects on carbon storage folowing the 2006 Tripod Complex Fire, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Washington, USA. Fire Ecology In press.

Restaino, J.C., and D.L. Peterson. 2014. Sensitivity of long-term carbon stores to wildfire frequency and treatment intensity, eastside Cascade Range, Washington, USA. Fire Ecology In press.

2013

Alexander, M.E., M.G. Cruz, N.M. Vaillant, and D.L. Peterson. 2013. Crown fire behavior characteristics and prediction in conifer forests: a state-of-knowledge synthesis. Final report to the Joint Fire Science Program, project 09-S-03-1. https://www.firescience.gov/projects/09-S-03-1/project/09-S-03-1_final_report.pdf.

Hummel, S., M.C. Kennedy, and E.A. Steel. 2013. Assessing forest vegetation and fire simulation model performance after the Cold Springs wildfire, Washington USA. Forest Ecology and Management 287: 40-52. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2012.08.031

Johnson, M.C., J.E. Halofsky, D.L. Peterson, and J. Bergin. 2013. Effects of salvage logging and pile-and-burn on fuel loading, potential fire behavior, fuel consumption, and emissions. International Journal of Wildland Fire 22(6): 757-769.

Prichard, S.J., and Peterson, D.L. Do fuel treatments reduce fire severity? Evaluating fuel treatment effectiveness in the 2006 Tripod Complex fires, Final report to the Joint Fire Science Program, project 07-1-2-13. http://www.firescience.gov/projects/07-1-2-13/project/07-1-2-13_prichard_finalreport_march2010.pdf.

Restaino, J.C., and Peterson, D.L. 2013. Wildfire and fuel treatment effects on forest carbon dynamics in the western United States. Forest Ecology and Management 303:46-60.

2012

Cansler, C.A., and D. McKenzie. 2012. How robust are burn severity indices when applied in a new region? Evaluation of alternate field-based and remote-sensing methods. Remote Sensing 4:456-483.

Lyons-Tinsley, C., and Peterson, D.L. 2012. Surface fuel treatments in young regenerating stands affect wildfire severity in a mixed conifer forest, eastside Cascade Range, Washington, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 270: 117-125.

McKenzie, D., N.H.F. French, and R.D. Ottmar. 2012. National database for calculating fuel available to wildfires. EOS Transactions 93:57-58.

McKenzie, D., and M.C. Kennedy. 2012. Power laws reveal phase transitions in landscape controls of fire regimes. Nature Commnications doi: 10.1038/ncomms1731.

Prichard, S., and M.C. Kennedy. 2012. Fuel treatment effects on tree mortality following wildfire in dry mixed conifer forests, Washington State, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire 21: 1004-1013.

Raymond, C.L., and D. McKenzie. 2012. Carbon dynamics of forests in Washington, U.S: projections for the 21st century based on climate-driven changes in fire regime. Ecological Applications 22:1589-1611.

2011

McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk, eds. 2011. The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Ltd.

McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk. 2011. Toward a theory of landscape fire. Chapter 1 in McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk, eds. 2011. The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Ltd.

McKenzie, D., and M.C. Kennedy. 2011. Scaling laws and complexity in fire regimes. Chapter 2 in McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk, eds. 2011. The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Ltd.

Peterson, D.L., Halofsky, J.E., and Johnson, M.C. 2011. Managing and adapting to changing fire regimes in a warmer climate. Pages 249-267 in D. McKenzie, C. Miller, and D.A. Falk (eds.), The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Ltd.

McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk. 2011. Synthesis: landscape ecology and changing fire regimes. Chapter 12 in McKenzie, D., C. Miller, and D.A. Falk, eds. 2011. The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Ltd.

Falk, D.A., E.K. Heyerdahl, P.M. Brown, C. Farris, P.Z. Fulé, D. McKenzie, T.W. Swetnam, A.H. Taylor, and M.L. van Horne. 2011. Multiscale controls of historical forest fire regimes: new insights from fire-scar networks. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9:446-454.

Halofsky, J.E., Donato, D.C., Hibbs, D.E., Campbell, J.L., Donaghy-Cannon, M., Fontaine, J.B., Thompson, J.R., Anthony, R.G., Bormann, B.T., Kayes, L.J., Peterson, D.L., and Spies, T.A. 2011. Mixed-severity fire regimes: lessons from the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion. Ecosphere 2(4):art40. doi: 10.1890/ES10-00184.1.

Hilbruner, M.W., and Peterson, D.L. 2011. Forest Service wildland fire research and development: meeting the challenges of wildland fire and fuels management. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report WO-85. USDA Forest Service Research and Development, Washington, DC.

Johnson, M.C., Kennedy, M.C., and Peterson, D.L. 2011. Simulating fuel treatment effects in dry forests of the western United States: testing the principles of a fire-safe forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41:1018-1030.

2010

Kennedy, M.C., and D. McKenzie. 2010. Using a stochastic model and cross-scale analysis to evaluate controls on historical low-severity fire regimes. Landscape Ecology 25:1561-1573.

Peterson, D.L. 2010. Managing fire and fuels in a warmer climate. Northwest Woodlands 26: 16-17. Notes: also pp. 28-29

Peterson, D.L. and Lyons-Tinsley, C. 2010. Raising the bar in fire ecology: Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes. Book review. Ecology 91:2186-2187.

Prichard, S.J., Peterson, D.L., and Jacobsen, K. 2010. Fuel treatments alter the effects of wildfire in dry mixed-conifer forest, Cascade Range, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40:1615-1626.

2009

Littell, J.S., D. McKenzie, D.L. Peterson, and A.L. Westerling. 2009. Climate and wildfire area burned in western U.S. ecoprovinces, 1916-2003. Ecological Applications 19:1003-1021.

Keeley, J.E., G. Aplet, N.L. Christensen, S.G. Conard, E.A. Johnson, P.N. Omi, D.L. Peterson, and T.W. Swetnam. 2009. Ecological foundations for fire management in North America. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-779.

Kopper, K.E., McKenzie, D., and Peterson, D.L. 2009. The evaluation of meta-analysis techniques for quantifying prescribed fire effects on fuel loadings. USDA Forest Service Research Paper PNW-RP-582. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Peterson, D.L., Agee, J.K., Aplet, G.H., Dykstra, D.P., Graham, R.T., Lehmkuhl, J.F., Pilliod, D.S., Potts, D.F., Powers, R.F., and Stuart, J.D. 2009. Effects of timber harvest following wildfire in western North America: issues and scientific evidence. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-776. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Prichard, S.J., Oswald, W.W., Gedalof, Z., and Peterson, D.L. 2009. Holocene fire and vegetation dynamics in a montane forest, North Cascade Range, Washington, USA. Quaternary Research 72: 57-67.

Johnson, M.C., D.L. Peterson, and C. Raymond. 2009. Fuel treatment guidebook: illustrating treatment effects on fire hazard. Fire Management Today 69:29-33.

2008

McKenzie, D., C.L. Raymond, and S.C. Cushman. 2008. Modeling understory vegetation and its response to fire. Chapter 15, pp.391-414, in J. Millspaugh and F.R. Thompson III (eds.), Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes. Burlington, MA: Academic Press.

Heyerdahl, E.K., D. McKenzie, L.D. Daniels, A.E. Hessl, J.S. Littell, and N.J. Mantua. 2008. Climate drivers of regionally synchronous fires in the inland Northwest (1651–1900). International Journal of Wildland Fire 17:40-49.

Kellogg, L.-K.B., McKenzie, D., Peterson, D.L., and Hessl, A.E. 2008. Spatial models for inferring topographic controls on low-severity fire in the eastern Cascade Range of Washington, USA. Landscape Ecology 23: 227-240.

McKenzie, D., and A.E. Hessl. 2008. A neutral model for low-severity fire regimes. Pages 139-149 in M. Narog, compiler, Proceedings of the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing Fire and Fuels in the Remaining Wildlands and Open Spaces ofthe Southwestern United States, December 2–5, 2002, San Diego, California.

pre-2008

McKenzie, D., C.L. Raymond, L.-K.B. Kellogg, R.A. Norheim, A.G. Andreu, A.C. Bayard, K.E. Kopper, and E. Elman. 2007. Mapping fuels at multiple scales: landscape application of the Fuel Characteristic Classification System. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 37:2421-2437.

Falk, D.A., C. Miller, D. McKenzie, and A.E. Black. 2007. Cross-scale analysis of fire regimes. Ecosystems 10:809-823.

Gavin, D.G., D.J. Hallett, F.S. Hu, K.P. Lertzman, S.J. Prichard, K.J. Brown, J.A. Lynch, P.J. Bartlein, and D.L. Peterson. 2007. Forest fire and climate change in western North America: Insights from sediment charcoal records. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5:499-506.

Johnson, M.C., D.L. Peterson, and C.L. Raymond. 2007. Guide to fuel treatments in dry forests of the western United States: assessing forest structure and fire hazard. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW- GTR-686. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Johnson, M.C., D.L. Peterson, and C.L. Raymond. 2007. Managing forest structure and fire hazard – a tool for planners. Journal of Forestry 105:77-83.

Peterson, D.L., and M.C. Johnson. 2007. Science-based strategic planning for hazardous fuel treatment. Fire Management Today 67:13-18.

Peterson, D.L., L. Evers, B. Gravenmier, and E. Eberhardt. 2007. A consumer guide: tools to manage vegetation and fuels. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-690. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Hessl, A.E., J. Miller, J. Kernan, and D. McKenzie. 2006. Mapping wildfire boundaries from binary point data: comparing approaches. Professional Geographer 59:87-104.

McKenzie, D., A.E. Hessl, and L.-K.B. Kellogg. 2006. Using neutral models to identify constraints on low-severity fire regimes. Landscape Ecology 21:139-152.

Wiedinmyer, C., B. Quayle, C. Geron, A. Belote, D. McKenzie, X. Zhang, S.M. O’Neill, and K.K. Wynne. 2006. Estimating emissions from fires in North America for air quality modeling. Atmospheric Environment 40:3419-3432.

Raymond, C.L., L.-K.B. Kellogg, and D. McKenzie. 2006. Mapping fuels on the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests. Pages 293-304 in P.L. Andrews and B.W. Butler (editors). Fuels management - how to measure success: conference proceedings. March 28-30, 2006, Portland, OR. Proceedings RMRS-P-41.

Gedalof, Z., P. Mote, D. McKenzie, and D.L. Peterson. 2005. Top-down controls on wildfire in the American West. Pages 33-43 in L. Taylor, J. Zelnik, S. Cadwallader, and B. Hughes (eds.), Mixed Severity Fire Regimes: Ecology and Management. Washington State University Cooperative Extension, Pullman, WA.

Johnson, M.C., and D.L. Peterson. 2005. Forest fuel treatments in western North America: merging silviculture and fire management. Forestry Chronicle 81:365-368.

Gedalof, Z. D.L. Peterson, and N.J. Mantua. 2005. Atmospheric, climatic and ecological controls on extreme wildfire years in the northwestern United States. Ecological Applications 15:154-174.

Raymond, C.L., and D.L. Peterson. 2005. Fuel treatments alter the effects of wildfire in a mixed-evergreen forest, Oregon, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35:2981-2995.

Raymond, C.L., and D.L. Peterson. 2005. How did prefire treatments affect the Biscuit Fire? Fire Management Today 65:18-22.

Peterson, D.L., M.C. Johnson, J.K. Agee, T.B. Jain, D. McKenzie, and E.D. Reinhardt. 2005. Forest structure and fire hazard in dry forests of the western United States. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-628. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

McKenzie, D. 2004. La historia del fuego y su relación con el clima. Pages 13-28 in: L. Villers-Ruiz and J López-Blanco, eds. Incendios forestales en México: métodos de evaluación. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF.

Hessl, A.E., D. McKenzie, and R. Schellhaas. 2004. Drought and Pacific Decadal Oscillation inked to fire occurrence in the inland Pacific Northwest. Ecological Applications 14:425-442.

McKenzie, D., S. Prichard, A.E. Hessl, and D.L. Peterson. 2004. Empirical approaches to modelling wildland fire in the Pacific Northwest: methods and applications to landscape simulations. Chapter 7 in A.J. Perera, L. Buse, and M.G. Weber, eds., Emulating Natural Forest Landscape Disturbances. Columbia University Press, New York, NY.

Diaz-Avalos, C., D.L. Peterson, E. Alvarado C., S.A. Ferguson, and J.E. Besag. 2001. Space-time modelling of lightning-caused forest fires in the Blue Mountains, Oregon. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 31:1579-1593.

Fagre, D.B. and D.L. Peterson. 2000. Ecosystem dynamics and disturbance in mountain wildernesses: assessing vulnerability of natural resources to change. Pages 74-91 in D.N. Cole and S.F. McCool (eds.), Wilderness Science in a Time of Change. USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-15-VOL-3. Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ogden, UT.

McKenzie, D., D.L. Peterson, and J.K. Agee. 2000. Fire frequency in the Interior Columbia River Basin: building regional models from fire history data. Ecological Applications 10:1497-1516.

McKenzie, D., D.L. Peterson, and J.K. Agee. 2000. Spatial variation in fire frequency in the Interior Columbia River Basin. Pages 257-263 in L.F. Neuenschwander and K.C. Ryan (eds.), Proceedings of the 1999 Joint Fire Science Conference and Workshop. University of Idaho, Moscow.

Peterson, D. L. and Schmoldt, D. L. 2000. Research and management issues in large-scale fire modeling. In H. Salminen, J. Saarikko, and W. Virtanen, (eds.), Proceedings Resource Technology '98 Nordic. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Research Paper 791, Vantaa, Finland.

Peterson, D.L., S.J. Prichard, and D. McKenzie. 2000. Disturbance in mountain forests. Pages 51-58 in M.F. Price and N. Butt (eds.), Forests in Sustainable Mountain Development. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.

Schmoldt, D.L., D.L. Peterson, R.E. Keane, J.M. Lenihan, D. McKenzie, D.R. Weise, and D.V. Sandberg. 1999. Assessing the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems: a scientific agenda for research and management. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report GTR-PNW-455. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Peterson, D.L. 1999. Wildfire, forest fire, grass fire. Pages 700-701 in D.E. Alexander and R.W. Fairbridge (eds.), Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Peterson, D.L. 1998. Large-scale fire disturbance: from concepts to models. Northwest Science 72 (Special Issue):1-3.

McKenzie, D. 1998. Fire, vegetation, and scale: toward optimal models for the Pacific Northwest. Northwest Science 72:49-65.

McKenzie, D., D.L. Peterson and E. Alvarado. 1996. Predicting the effect of fire on large-scale vegetation patterns in North America. USDA Forest Service Research Paper PNW-489, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, Oregon.

McKenzie, D., D.L. Peterson, and E. Alvarado. 1996. Extrapolation problems in modeling fire effects at large spatial scales: a review. International Journal of Wildland Fire 6:165-176.

McKenzie, D., D.L. Peterson, and E. Alvarado. 1996. Predicting the effect of fire on large-scale vegetation patterns in North America. USDA Forest Service Research Paper PNW-489. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR.

Little, R.L., D.L. Peterson, and L.L. Conquest. 1994. Regeneration of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) following fire: effects of climate and other factors. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 24:934-944.

Peterson, D.L., S.S. Sackett, L.J. Robinson, and S.K. Haase. 1994. The effects of repeated prescribed burning on Pinus ponderosa growth. International Journal of Wildland Fire 4:239-247.

Peterson, D.L, M.J. Arbaugh, G.H. Pollock, and L.J. Robinson. 1991. Postfire growth of Pseudotsuga menziesii and Pinus contorta in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire 1:63-71.