scholarly journals Fire Effects and Fire History of Mesa Verde National Park

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 199-202
Author(s):  
Lisa Floyd-Hanna ◽  
Ken Heil ◽  
Bill Romme
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Perennial Grasses ◽  
Pinus Edulis ◽  
Juniperus Osteosperma ◽  
The North ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quercus Gambelii

Mesa Verde consists of a series of mesas in a north to south trend. The mesa tops are narrow strips, cut by numerous canyons of varying depth. Mesa Verde sandstones, particularly the Cliff House Formation, form the canyon slopes. Long Mesa, an area of focus in this study, has an elevation 2180 m at the south to 2517 m at the north end. Long Canyon cuts down to an elevation of 2133 m. The vegetation on Long Mesa is a mosaic of mature pinon-juniper woodlands and mountain shrub associations. Shrub associations range from Gambels oak, (Quercus gambelii), and serviceberry, (Amelancheir utahensis), to Black Sagebrush, (Artemesia nova), and Bitterbrush, (Purshia tridentata). Although there is a body of information concerned with the effect of fire on pinon-juniper woodlands, there are no adequate studies of the shrub-rich pinon­juniper ecosystem of Colorado. Succession following fire was documented by Erdman (1970) in Mesa Verde National Park. He reported that annuals dominate initially, then perennial grasses and forbs, followed by shrub invasion. The open shrub stage becomes a "thicket" approximately 100 years after the fire. The shrubs, he suggests, are outcompeted by pinon (Pinus edulis) and juniper trees (Juniperus osteosperma), which dominate by about 300 years.

scholarly journals Fire Effects and Fire History of Mesa Verde National Park

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 159-163
Author(s):  
Lisa Floyd-Hanna ◽  
Bill Romme
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Perennial Grasses ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
The North ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
History Of

Mesa Verde consists of a series of mesas in a north to south trend. The mesa tops are narrow strips, cut by numerous canyons of varying depth. Mesa Verde sandstones, particularly the Cliff House Formation, form the canyon slopes. Long Mesa, an area of focus in this study, has an elevation 2180 m at the south to 2517 m at the north end. Long Canyon cuts down to an elevation of 2133 m. The vegetation on Long Mesa is a mosaic of mature pinon-juniper woodlands and mountain shrub associations. Shrub associations range from Gambels oak, (Quercus gambelii), and serviceberry, (Amelancheir utahensis), to Black Sagebrush, Artemesia nova), and Bitterbrush, (Purshia tridentata). Although there is a body of information concerned with the effect of fire on pinon-juniper woodlands, there are no adequate studies of the shrub-rich pinon-juniper ecosystem of Colorado. Succession following fire was documented by Erdman (1970) in Mesa Verde National Park. He reported that annuals dominate initially, then perennial grasses and forbs, followed by shrub invasion. The open shrub stage becomes a "thicket" approximately 100 years after the fire. The shrubs, he suggests, are outcompeted by pinon and juniper trees, which dominate by about 300 years. Fire and its relationship to resource management in Mesa Verde Park has been outlined by Omi and Emrick (1980). Focus was given to succession (cover and frequency of grass and shrub elements) following the 1873, 1934, and 1972 fires, and models predict the possibilities of control over moderate and severe fires in various vegetation classes within the Park. The study was concerned primarily with the nature of fire behavior and various fire-related management tools for use by Resource Management personnel.

scholarly journals Multi-Millennial Fire History of the Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park, California, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Swetnam ◽  
Christopher H. Baisan ◽  
Anthony C. Caprio ◽  
Peter M. Brown ◽  
Ramzi Touchan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Sequoia National Park ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Fire History of the Lamar River Drainage, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 169-173
Author(s):  
Stephen Barrett ◽  
Stephen Arno
Keyword(s):  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Pine Forests ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
History Of

This study's goal is to document the fire history of the Lamar River drainage, southeast of Soda Butte Creek in the Absaroka Mountains of northeastern Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Elsewhere in YNP investigators have documented very long-interval fire regimes for lodgepole pine forests occurring on rhyolitic derived soils (Romme 1982, Romme and Despain 1989) and short-interval fire regimes for the Douglas-fir/grassland types (Houston 1973). No fire regime information was available for lodgepole pine forests on andesitic derived soils, such as in the Lamar drainage. This study will provide managers with a more complete understanding of YNP natural fire history, and the data will supplement the park's Geographic Information System (GIS) data base. Moreover, most of the study area was severely burned in 1988 and historical tree ring data soon will be lost to attrition of potential sample trees.

scholarly journals Vegetation dynamics and Fire History in Färnebofjärden National Park, Central Sweden

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Gina E Hannon ◽  
Karen Halsall ◽  
Chiara Molinari ◽  
Erin Stoll ◽  
Diana Lilley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Natural Fire ◽  
Disturbance Factor ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Flooding Events

Palaeoecological studies can identify past trends in vegetation communities and processes over long time scales. Pollen, plant macrofossils and charcoal analyses are used to reconstruct vegetation over the last 6400 years and provide information about former human impact and disturbance regimes in Färnebofjärden National Park, Central Sweden. Three specific conservation planning topics were addressed: (1) the changing ratio of conifers to broadleaved trees; (2) the origin and history of the river meadows and the biodiverse Populus tremula meadows; (3) the role of fire in the maintenance of biological values. Early diverse mixed broadleaved forest assemblages with pine were followed by significant declines of the more thermophilic forest elements prior to the expansion of spruce in the Iron Age. The rise to dominance of spruce was a ‘natural’ process that has been exaggerated by anthropogenic disturbance to artificially high levels today. The initial river meadow communities were facilitated by fire and frequent flooding events, but subsequent dynamics have more definitely been supported by human activities. Rural abandonment during the last 100 years has led to woody successions. Fire has been a continual disturbance factor with an influence on conservation issues such as Picea abies dominance and the maintenance of diverse, non-forest communities. Present occurrence of fire is unusually low, but natural fire frequencies are increasing in the region.

Fire history of Araucaria-Nothofagus forests in Villarrica National Park, Chile

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1187-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro E. González ◽  
Thomas T. Veblen ◽  
Jason S. Sibold
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Nothofagus Forests ◽  
History Of

Effects of Forest Fires on Archaeological Resources at Grand Canyon National Park

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Trinkle Jones ◽  
Robert C. Euler
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
The North ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fire Area

For a number of years archaeologists have discussed the effects of forest fires on archaeological resources. Studies under experimental conditions and of sites after they were burned form the bulk of this effort but, for the most part, they have not been published. This article examines the fire history of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the effects of the Dutton Point wildfire on prehistoric architecture and artifacts—particularly ceramics. Armed with those data, a modest experiment useful in any proposed prescribed fire area containing cultural resources, was designed. This involved “before and after” studies of a ruin that was to be subjected to prescribed burning and included buried temperature controls and the varying effects upon the resource. Finally, a hypothesis regarding the effect of wildfires on archaeological sites is presented.

scholarly journals Summer Habitat Preferences and Activity Patterns of River Otters In Grand Teton National Park

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Joseph Hall
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
National Park ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Lontra Canadensis ◽  
Snake River ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
River Otters ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of

I studied the natural history of river otters. (Lontra canadensis) during the summers of 1982-1986 and 1995-1997 in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Habitat preferences were analyzed by tallying sightings on 5 types of habitat along 16 km of the Snake River. Otters were seen on all 5 habitat types and exhibited a strong preference for the logjam/beaver lodge category. Beavers and otters sometimes occupied a lodge simultaneously. I recorded daytime activity directly in 1982 and noted a large peak in mid-morning and a small one in late afternoon. To obtain information indirectly on round-the-clock activity I employed 6 modified camera monitors activated by treadle-switches at frequently used sites. Pooled records for 3 summers showed almost two and a half times higher activity by day than by night, a finding opposite of what was expected. The hypothesis I suggest is that diurnal activity exceeds nocturnal activity because of the habituation of otters to humans over a half century's tradition of frequent exposure and non-harassment in the national park. In the summers of 1982-1986 and 1995-1997 I made a study of the natural history of river otters (Lontra canadensis), in Grand Teton National Park under auspices of the University of Wyoming - National Park Service Research Center. Occasional observations were made along the Snake River from Flagg Ranch near the north boundary of the park to the north end of Jackson Lake and from Pacific Creek to Deadman's Bar. However, the 3 km stretch of river from just below Jackson Lake Dam to the Oxbow was the site of most intensive study. (See Fig. 1)

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document