Ottmar, Roger D.; Vihnanek, Robert E. 1999. Stereo photo series for quantifying natural fuels. Volume V: midwest red and white pine, northern tallgrass prairie, and mixed oak types in the Central and Lake States. PMS 834. Boise, ID: National Wildfire Coordinating Group, National Interagency Fire Center. 99 p.
Three series of single and stereo photographs display a range of natural conditions and fuel loadings in midwest red and white pine, northern tallgrass prairie, and mixed oak ecosystem types in the Central and Lake States. Each group of photos includes inventory information summarizing vegetation composition, structure and loading, and, as appropriate, woody material loading and density by size class, forest floor depth and loading, and various site characteristics. The natural fuels photo series is designed to help land managers appraise fuel and vegetation conditions in natural settings.
Keywords: Woody material, biomass, fuel loading, natural fuels, red pine, Pinus resinosa, eastern white pine, Pinus strobus, oak, Quercus, hickory, Carya, northern tallgrass prairie, grassland, prairie.
COOPERATORS
This publication was developed by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest
Research Station, Fire and Environmental Research Applications Group, under contract with
the U.S. Department of the Interior.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special recognition is due numerous individuals for each of the three series. For the
midwest red and white pine series: Paul Tine, USDA Forest Service, Minnesota Interagency
Fire Center; Mike Drotts, Chippewa National Forest, Deer River Ranger District; Tim
Norman, Superior National Forest, Gunflint Ranger District; Steve Jakala, Voyageurs
National Park; and Becky Marty, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Itasca State
Park. For the northern tallgrass prairie series: Brian Winter, Steve Packard, and Mel Hof,
The Nature Conservancy; Gary Swanson, USFWS, Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge; Rod
Walton, Department of Energy, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, National
Environmental Research Park; JoEllen Siddens, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County,
Illinois; and Joe Niehof, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Goose Lake Prairie
State Natural Area. For the mixed oak series: Eric Schmeckpeper, Tennessee Valley
Authority; Elaine Kennedy-Sutherland, and Todd Hutchinson, USDA Forest Service, North
Central Forest Experiment Station; and James Runkle, Wright State University, Department
of Biological Science.
AUTHORS
ROGER D. OTTMAR is a research forester, and ROBERT E. VIHNANEK is a supervisory
forester, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Pacific Wildland Fire
Sciences Laboratory, 400 N 34th Street, Suite 201 Seattle, Washington 98103.
PHOTOGRAPH AND INFORMATION ARRANGEMENT
The photographs and accompanying data summaries are presented as single sites organized
into three series. Each site contains the wide-angle (50 mm) photograph, general site
information, understory information (midwest red and white pine, and mixed oak series),
vegetation information (northern tallgrass prairie series) and for the two forested
series, summaries of sapling and tree structure and composition, forest floor depth,
loading and constancy, and dead and down woody material loading and density by size class.
Figure 1--Photo series sample area layout. Forty random azimuth
line transects (one at each point on the 30- and 150-foot arcs, and two at each point on
the 60-, 90-, and 120-foot arcs) and 10-15 clipped vegetation plots (two to three per arc)
were located within the sample area. Trees, shrubs and seedlings were inventoried on 12
systematically located sample plots.
SITE INFORMATION
The camera point of each site was located with a global positioning
system (GPS) receiver using the WGS-84 datum. Elevations, where reported, were derived
from topographic maps. Tree species present at the forested sites and grass, forb, and
shrub species present at the northern tallgrass prairie sites are listed in order of
abundance.1 Forest type and Society of American Foresters (SAF)
cover type, indicators of current vegetation composition, were assigned for all forested
sites, as appropriate (Eyre 1980, USGS 1987). To provide a general indication of site and
vegetation conditions, sites in the northern tallgrass prairie series were assigned to a
Minnesota Natural Heritage Program community type (Minnesota DNR 1981).
For the midwest red and white pine series, crown closure was calculated using a spherical densiometer, and the percentage of hardwoods was determined from the sapling and tree species distribution. The northern tallgrass prairie series includes anecdotal and fire history information, as available.
| 1See below for a list of scientific and common species names used in this volume. |
UNDERSTORY OR VEGETATION INFORMATION
Understory vegetation was sampled in 12 to 20 square, clipped vegetation plots (2.69
square feet each for the forested series, and 10.76 square feet each for the northern
tallgrass prairie series) located systematically throughout the sample area (fig. 1). All
grasses, forbs, and low shrubs were clipped at ground level and returned to the laboratory
for oven drying (all shrubs were clipped and dried for the northern tallgrass prairie and
mixed oak series). Clipped vegetation and other collected material were ovendried at a
minimum of 158 °F for at least 48 hours before weighing and determination of area
loading. Grass height was measured on both photography dates to allow seasonal comparisons
of vegetation structure among the northern tallgrass prairie sites. Grass height and
correspondingly, biomass show considerable variation annually; exercise prudence when
using these values. For the midwest red and white pine series, tall shrubs were censused
and measured in 12 circular plots (0.0008 to 0.005 acre each) located systematically
throughout the sample area. Tall shrub heights are reported as the average of all tall
shrub stems and, parenthetically, as the average of all tall shrub stems that are >4.5
feet tall. Tall shrub biomass was calculated from species-specific allometric equations
(Grigal and Ohmann 1977, Roussopoulos and Loomis 1979). For the forested series, seedlings
were inventoried in 0.0008- to 0.001-acre circular plots located systematically throughout
the sample area.
SAPLINGS AND TREES
Saplings and trees were sampled in twelve 0.005-acre circular plots for both forested
series (fig. 1). Tree measurement data were summarized by diameter at breast height
(d.b.h.) size class and by tree status (all, live or dead).2 For
the midwest red and white pine series, ladder fuel height was defined as the average
height of the lowest live or dead branch material that could carry fire into the crown of
sampled trees, and live crown mass values (i.e., live branches and foliage) were
calculated from species-specific allometric equations using measurements of sampled trees
(Swank and Schreuder 1974; Barney et al. 1978; Roussopoulos and Loomis 1979; Ker 1980;
Singh 1981,1984; Yarie and VanCleve 1983; Clark and Schroeder 1985; Harding and Grigal
1985; Chapman and Gower 1991). The height to live crown is reported for both forested
series and is reported as the average of the heights of the lowest continuous live
branches of the sampled trees.
| 2D.b.h. is measured 4.5 feet above the ground. |
FOREST FLOOR
For the forested series, surface material and duff depth were calculated as the average of
80 or 100 randomly distributed measurements taken throughout the sample area. The depth of
the different forest floor components was calculated as an average of depth only where
each component was encountered during sampling. Therefore, the depths reported for the
different forest floor components are not site-wide averages and, as such, are not
necessarily additive. Loading was calculated from bulk density values derived from field
measurements. The bulk density values used for each material type for each series appear
under the "Notes to Users" heading at the beginning of each series. Constancy
indicates how consistently the various forest floor components occur in the sample area
and is expressed as a percentage of the total number of measurements.
WOODY MATERIAL
Measurement techniques used for inventorying dead and down woody material in the forested
series were patterned after the planar intersect method outlined by Brown (1974) and
described by Maxwell and Ward (1980). Forty transects of random azimuth starting at 25
systematically located points within the sample area were used to determine woody material
loading and density (fig. 1). Woody material data are reported by size classes that
correspond to timelag fuel classes used in fire behavior modeling (see, for example,
Burgan and Rothermel 1984).3 Woody material in 10-hour, and
100-hour and larger size classes was tallied on transects that were 10 feet and 30 feet
long, respectively. Woody material loading in the 1-hour size class was assumed to be 60
percent of 10-hour loading based on previous field observations. The decay class (sound or
rotten) and the actual diameter at the point of intersection was measured for all pieces
>3 inches in diameter. All woody material <3 inches in diameter was considered
sound. Woody material loading and woody material density were calculated from
relationships that use number of pieces intersected and transect length (and wood specific
gravity for loading) developed by Brown (1974) and Safranyik and Linton (1987),
respectively.
| 3Woody material <=0.25 inch, 0.26-1.0 inch and 1.1-3.0 inches, and >3.0 inches in diameter corresponds to 1-, 10-, 100- and 1000-hour timelag fuels, respectively. |
SPECIES LIST
Scientific and common species names are from NRCS (1997). Some species were considered
trees in the mixed oak series but tall shrubs in the midwest red and white pine series;
hence they appear in both lists.
| SCIENTIFIC NAME | COMMON NAME | SCIENTIFIC NAME | COMMON NAME |
TREES Abies balsamea Acer rubrum Acer saccharum Aesculus glabra Aesculus octandra Amelanchier arborea Asimina triloba Betula papyrifera Carpinus caroliniana Carya cordiformis Carya glabra Carya ovata Carya alba (formerly Carya tomentosa) Cercis canadensis Cornus florida Fagus grandifolia Fraxinus americana Fraxinus nigra Fraxinus pennsylvanica Fraxinus quadrangulata Liquidambar styraciflua Liriodendron tulipifera Nyssa sylvatica Ostrya virginiana Oxydendrum arboreum Picea glauca Picea mariana Pinus banksiana Pinus resinosa Pinus strobus Populus balsamifera Populus grandidentata Populus tremuloides Prunus serotina Prunus virginiana Quercus alba Quercus coccinea Quercus prinus Quercus rubra Quercus velutina Sassafras albidum Tilia americana Ulmus alata Ulmus americana Ulmus rubra Viburnum prunifolium |
Balsam fir Red maple Sugar maple Ohio buckeye Yellow buckeye Common serviceberry Common pawpaw Paper birch American hornbeam Bitternut hickory Pignut hickory Shagbark hickory Mockernut hickory Eastern redbud Flowering dogwood American beech White ash Black ash Green ash Blue ash; Sweetgum Tuliptree Blackgum Eastern hophornbeam Sourwood White spruce Black spruce Jack pine Red pine Eastern white pine Balsam poplar Bigtooth aspen Quaking aspen Black cherry Common chokecherry White oak Scarlet oak Chestnut oak Northern red oak Black oak Sassafras American basswood Winged elm American elm Slippery elm Blackhaw |
TALL SHRUBS Acer spicatum Alnus viridis ssp. crispa Amelanchier arborea Cornus florida Cornus racemosa Cornus rugosa Corylus cornuta Rhamnus spp. Salix spp. Sorbus americana GRASSES AND FORBS Agropyron repens Andropogon gerardii Apocynum spp. Asclepias incarnata Asclepias syriaca Aster pilosus Calamagrostis canadensis Daucus carota Eupatorium maculatum Mentha arvensis Monarda fistulosa Panicum virgatum Phalaris arundinacea Phleum pratense Poa pratensis Ratibida pinnata Schizachyrium scoparium Silphium integrifolium Silphium laciniatum Silphium terebinthinaceum Sorghastrum nutans Solidago canadensis var. canadensis Spartina pectinata Sporobolus heterolepis Typha x glauca |
Mountain maple American green alder Common serviceberry Flowering dogwood Gray dogwood Roundleaf dogwood Beaked hazelnut Buckthorn Willow American mountainash Quackgrass Big bluestem Dogbane Swamp milkweed Common milkweed White oldfield aster Bluejoint Queen Anne's lace Spotted joepyeweed Wild mint Wildbergamot beebalm Switchgrass Reed canarygrass Timothy Kentucky bluegrass Pinnate prairie coneflower Little bluestem Wholeleaf rosinweed Compassplant Prairie rosinweed Yellow Indiangrass Canada goldenrod Prairie cordgrass Prairie dropseed White cattail |
LITERATURE CITED
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Brown, James K. 1974. Handbook for inventorying downed woody material. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-16. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 24 p.
Burgan, Robert E.; Rothermel, Richard C. 1984. BEHAVE: fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system--FUEL subsystem. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-167. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 126 p.
Chapman, Jonathon W.; Gower, Stith T. 1991. Aboveground production and canopy dynamics in sugar maple and red oak trees in southwestern Wisconsin. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 21: 1533-1543.
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