Home

Findings 3 4

Past management, created as experimental manip- ulations in the LTEP study—of 110-yr-old, fire- origin, Douglas-fir-dominated stands—changed how the fire burned. The thinned and underburned stand had the least mortality (36%); the two control stands had

intermediate mortality (63 and 77%); thinned, low woody

debris stands had moderately high mortality(91 and 94%);

while thinned high woody debris and 6-yr-old pioneer and

Douglas-fir stands had 100% mortality. The relatively low

mortality in the controls was most unexpected, and not

predicted by the fire models (Raymond 2004, Raymond and

Peterson 2005). The relative similarity among pairs in replicated

treatments (controls and thinned low woody debris) gives us limited

confidence in these conclusions. We must also consider, however,

that fire behavior is influenced by more than fuels. Even though most

stands burned on the same day, how they started, what was adjacent to

them, and other factors may have come into play. Potential explanations for

observed patterns of mortality—including a possible role for mid-story hardwoods removed in the thinning of these stands—deserve future

attention.

Initial Findings

Past management changed how the fire burned.

Background

related to this finding

Objectives

related to this finding

Methods
related to this finding

Initial results
related to this finding

Although not surprising, tree mortality averaged across individual treatments explains about 50% of the variation in average temperature as measured by the degree that aluminum tags melted along our grid system. Future work will examine relationships between caloric consumption, temperature, fuel distribution, hardwood distributions, slope, woody debris, and other variables.

Tree mortality and fire temperatures are significantly related.

Objectives

related to this finding

Methods
related to this finding

Initial results
related to this finding

HOME