scholarly journals Succession Following the 1974 Waterfalls Canyon Fire

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 68-72
Author(s):  
Kathleen Doyle ◽  
Dennis Knight
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Permanent Plots ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
Natural Fires ◽  
In Fire

In the early 1970's, the growing awareness of the potential ecological impacts of fire suppression and the threat of more intensive fires due to fuel accumulation in fire-suppressed forests prompted the National Park Service to allow some fires to burn (Grand Teton National Park 1974). One of the first "prescribed natural fires" in a western National Park was the Waterfalls Canyon Fire (WCF) in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). It was ignited by lightning in July 1974. Amid much public controversy (Anonymous 1974), the fire burned 1414 ha before it was extinguished by snow in December. In the following year, GTNP biologists established permanent plots within and adjacent to the WCF in forests dominated by subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, and lodgepole pine, and which varied in fire severity and time since fire. The goal of the study was to document the effect of the 1974 fire by monitoring long-term changes in vegetation, breeding birds, and small mammals (Barmore et al. 1976). Data were collected from four study areas in 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1983 under the direction of William Barmore. In 1991 and 1992 we resampled the permanently-marked vegetation plots and breeding bird transects. Our objectives were to compile, analyze and interpret all of the data collected from the four study areas since 1975.

scholarly journals Dendrochronological Assessment of Whitebark Pine Response to Past Climate Change: Implications for a Threatened Species in Grand Teton National Park

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
Kendra McLauchlan ◽  
Kyleen Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Whitebark Pine ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Pine Trees

One of the keystone tree species in subalpine forests of the western United States – whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis, hereafter whitebark pine) – is experiencing a significant mortality event (Millar et al. 2012). Whitebark pine occupies a relatively restricted range in the high-elevation ecosystems in the northern Rockies and its future is uncertain. The current decline of whitebark pine populations has been attributed to pine beetle infestations, blister rust infections, anthropogenic fire suppression, and climate change (Millar et al. 2012). Despite the knowledge that whitebark pine is severely threatened by multiple stressors, little is known about the historic capacity of this species to handle these stressors. More specifically, it is unknown how whitebark pine has dealt with past climatic variability, particularly variation in the type of precipitation (rain vs. snow) available for soil moisture, and how differences in quantity of precipitation have influenced the establishment and growth of modern stands. We propose to study the past responses of whitebark pine to paleoclimatic conditions, which would be useful to park ecologists in developing new conservation and regeneration plans to prevent the extinction of this already severely threatened high-elevation resource. The purpose of this study is to determine in great temporal and spatial detail the demographics of the current stand of whitebark pine trees in the watershed surrounding an unnamed, high-altitude pond (known informally as Whitebark Pine Moraine Pond) located approximately 3.06 miles NW of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). The main objectives of this study were: 1.) To obtain the precise GPS locations of the current stand of whitebark pine trees in the watershed to generate a GIS map detailing their locations. 2.) To obtain increment cores of a subset of the trees in the watershed to estimate age and date of establishment for the current stand of whitebark pines, with particular attention to fire history. 3.) To analyze ring widths from core samples to identify climatic indicators that may influence the regeneration and survival of whitebark pine.

scholarly journals Factors Influencing the Seedling Establishment of Engelmann Spruce and Subalpine Fir

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
A. Knapp ◽  
W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Wildlife Management ◽  
National Park ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Subalpine Fir ◽  
Engelmann Spruce ◽  
Natural Fires ◽  
Management Objectives

Prescribed burning in U.S. National Parks has been employed as a substitute for natural fires to achieve vegetation and/or wildlife management objectives (Habeck 1970). One specific management objective in Glacier National Park (GNP) is the restoration of plant community diversity to pre-fire-suppression levels.

scholarly journals Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Martin Cody
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Subalpine Fir ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Jackson Hole

This report covers year 2 of a three year project, 1995-1997 inclusive, to instigate a permanent program of monitoring landbird species composition and densities in a variety of representative habitats within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Habitats range from grassland and sagebrush on the valley floor of Jackson Hole (around 1900 m) through a range of scrub, woodland, and tall foothill forest vegetation types to montane sites of subalpine fir and tundra (ca. 3000 m). The monitoring program is intended to provide data on year-to-year fluctuations in breeding bird species and densities, and document longer-term changes (if any) in the local avifauna of resident and migratory species. The data base will document variability in size of breeding populations among years, local shifts in distribution and abundance over habitat types, and potentially form an information source on which management and conservation decisions might be based.

scholarly journals Pyrodiversity promotes avian diversity over the decade following forest fire

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1840) ◽  
pp. 20161703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan W. Tingley ◽  
Viviana Ruiz-Gutiérrez ◽  
Robert L. Wilkerson ◽  
Christine A. Howell ◽  
Rodney B. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Bird Diversity ◽  
Community Model ◽  
Avian Biodiversity ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Wildfire Regimes

An emerging hypothesis in fire ecology is that pyrodiversity increases species diversity. We test whether pyrodiversity—defined as the standard deviation of fire severity—increases avian biodiversity at two spatial scales, and whether and how this relationship may change in the decade following fire. We use a dynamic Bayesian community model applied to a multi-year dataset of bird surveys at 1106 points sampled across 97 fires in montane California. Our results provide strong support for a positive relationship between pyrodiversity and bird diversity. This relationship interacts with time since fire, with pyrodiversity having a greater effect on biodiversity at 10 years post-fire than at 1 year post-fire. Immediately after fires, patches of differing burn severities hold similar bird communities, but over the ensuing decade, bird assemblages within patches of contrasting severities differentiate. When evaluated at the scale of individual fires, fires with a greater heterogeneity of burn severities hold substantially more species. High spatial heterogeneity in severity, sometimes called ‘mixed-severity fire', is a natural part of wildfire regimes in western North America, but may be jeopardized by climate change and a legacy of fire suppression. Forest management that encourages mixed-severity fire may be critical for sustaining biodiversity across fire-prone landscapes.

scholarly journals Succession Following the 1974 Waterfalls Canyon Fire

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 148-149
Author(s):  
Kathleen Doyle ◽  
Dennis Knight
Keyword(s):  
Forest Floor ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Permanent Plots ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Natural Fires ◽  
The North

A major objective of the National Park Service is to preserve examples of natural features and processes that characterize the North American landscape. Fire is now widely recognized as a natural process in many ecosystems, but its management remains a controversial issue. Research on successional change following fire will contribute to improved fire interpretation and management. The Waterfalls Canyon (WC) fire was started by lightning in July 1974 and continued burning until December. Approximately 1414 ha were burned on the west side of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) (Barmore et al. 1976). This fire was especially significant because it was one of the first large fires to occur in a National Park following the adoption of the revised fire management policies in 1972, allowing natural fires to burn in certain designated areas. Prior to 1972, the long­standing fire management policy was to suppress both natural and human-caused fires (Barmore et al. 1976). Considerable scientific and public interest was generated by the Waterfalls Canyon fire. For example, tourists in GTNP complained about the smoke which obscured views of the Tetons. For park scientists, the Waterfalls Canyon fire provided an opportunity to initiate studies to better understand and interpret the fundamental role of fire in GTNP. During the summer of 1975, Barmore et al. (1976) established a series of permanent plots to evaluate post-fire changes in vegetation and small mammal and bird abundance. In addition, baseline data were collected in 1975 describing the soils, streamwater chemistry, and insect populations. Permanent plots were established within two stands that burned in 1974: 1) a severely burned stand (forest floor burned exposing mineral soil), and 2) a moderately burned stand (forest floor mostly unburned). In addition, permanent plots were established in two adjacent sites, both unburned in 1974, but which appeared to be very similar to the (WC) burned area. One was a mature spruce-fir forest that had not burned for more than 100 years, and the other was a stand that burned in 1932. Important data was collected by Park scientists following the Waterfalls Canyon fire, with vegetation, bird and mammal data being collected in the four study sites in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1983.

scholarly journals Postfire Plant Establishment: The Effects of Environment, Prefire Vegetation, Fire Severity, and Landscape Position in Grand Teton National Park

1995 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 24-25
Author(s):  
Kathleen Doyle ◽  
Dennis Knight
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Landscape Position ◽  
Vegetation Patterns ◽  
Multivariate Models ◽  
Vegetation Development ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Vegetation Establishment ◽  
Postfire Succession

Observations in the Rocky Mountains and elsewhere indicate that vegetation patterns that develop soon after forest fires vary considerably. This variability is evident even on sites that have similar environmental conditions. The causes of this heterogeneity are not well known, but it is now recognized that the conditions present soon after fire, and the plants that become established initially, influence the nature of the vegetation over the next 100-200 years or more (Glenn-Lewin et al. 1992). Our research investigates the causes of the variability in vegetation establishment following fire in Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger Teton National Forest. The specific objectives of our research are as follows: 1) determine the range of variability in the patterns of early postfire succession; 2) determine which environmental and historical variables are most important in controlling vegetation development following fire; 3) elucidate the importance of landscape position and between-patch interactions during early postfire succession; 4) develop a series of multivariate models that will predict the characteristics of early succession in different situations; and 5) project the most probable trajectories of each pioneer community type.

scholarly journals Identifying Avian Community Response to Sagebrush Vegetation Restoration in Grand Teton National Park

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Tracey Johnson ◽  
Anna Chalfoun
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Grassland Birds ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Native Grasses ◽  
Shrub Cover ◽  
Bare Ground ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park

Approximately 50-60% of native sagebrush steppe has been lost to non-native grasses, which has contributed to population decreases for sagebrush-associated songbirds. Removal of non-native grasses and restoration treatments may return structure and function of sagebrush steppe and ultimately benefit songbirds, but their responses must be evaluated. To determine breeding songbird community responses to sagebrush restoration treatments, in 2013 we conducted bird surveys at restored plots at the Kelly Hayfields restoration area in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. We compared bird communities and vegetation characteristics in restored plots to plots that were unrestored and to areas of native sagebrush steppe as starting and endpoints for restoration, respectively. Unrestored plots were dominated by non-native grasses; restored plots were dominated by forbs and bare ground and had very little shrub cover (< 0.1%). Native sagebrush plots were dominated by shrubs and native bunchgrasses. Bird community composition was distinct among the three types of plots. Abundance of grassland birds was highest in unrestored plots, and was positively related to cover of non-native grass and litter depth. Abundance of shrubland birds was highest in native sagebrush, and was positively associated with shrub cover. There were very few detections of birds in restored plots, and most species were negatively associated with the high levels of bare ground that characterized these plots. Restored areas may initially (≤5 yrs) provide little breeding bird habitat, which should be accounted for when determining schedules of restoration treatments at Kelly Hayfields.

scholarly journals Distribution and Body Size Diverstiy of Emberizine Sparrows in Grand Teton National Park

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Martin Cody
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Entire Range ◽  
National Park ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Monitoring Effort ◽  
Field Workers ◽  
Census Record

Over the last decade or so, we have monitored breeding bird densities over the entire range of habitats within GTNP, from grasslands and sagebrush to scrub, woodland , and forest. Many field workers, including park scientists, have contributed to the monitoring efforts. In all, there are 30 established monitoring sites, and each has been visited on average in two out of three years since 1995. Some sites, however, have been censused yearly, and on some of these the census record extends back for several decades. The monitoring work provides a rather complete assessment of the park's breeding bird communities, i.e. species over habitats among years, and to date some 160 species have been recorded in the monitoring effort, all but a handful of which are breeding birds. This report addresses specifically one prominent group of breeding birds, the emberizine sparrows and buntings.

scholarly journals Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park: 1995-1997

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Martin Cody ◽  
Stephen Cain
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
National Park ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
The Impact

In summer 1997 our NPS-funded project # CA-1460-5-0010, covering a 3-y period from summer 1995 through summer 1997, was completed. The immediate goals of the project were to instigate a system for monitoring the densities of breeding bird species, by establishment of flxed sites as a basis for a long term monitoring plan and of census protocols that can detect changes of breeding species and their densities over successive years. The monitoring scheme is conducted largely within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), but covers habitats and an avifauna representative of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and the central-northern Rocky Mountains in general. The project emphasizes the need for long­term and on-going studies on breeding bird species and densities and their importance as a tool for evaluating the impact of both local and distant influences on breeding bird populations. For residents, species that remain all year in or near the breeding habitat, local effects include those operating on-site during the non-breeding season as well as during the breeding season. For migrant species, those that breed on-site but leave to spend the non-breeding season in other locations, often distant and usually of quite different habitat composition, there are both on-site influences on breeding population densities, such as inter-year changes in vegetation structure and productivity, and off-site or distant influences, including factors that affect over-wintering success in the non­breeding habitat and others that influence a successful transit between wintering and breeding grounds. The assessment of long-term trends in bird densities may be used as a form of bioassay of the state of the local environments. Information from such studies can provide region-wide indicators that, given a sufficiently comprehensive data base, can segregate local from distant influences on populations. Such indicators can be incorporated into management strategies to aid in determining which local strategies may be necessary (and feasible) to help maintain the biota.

scholarly journals Monitoring Migratory Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park, Northern Rocky Mountains

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Martin Cody ◽  
Steven Cain
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Migratory Bird ◽  
Routine Activity ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Monitoring Scheme ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Land Bird

A scheme for long-term monitoring of breeding land bird populations in a wide variety of habitats representative of the northern Rockies and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) was initiated in summer 1993. It is projected that the monitoring scheme, when fully established and formalized, will become a routine activity in Grand Teton National Park, where a broad range of representative vegetation types is accessible within close geographic proximity. Sixteen study sites were established within the park in pristine habitat, from the Jackson Hole lowlands to subalpine and alpine sites, from meadow, sagebrush and marshland, through willow scrub, cottonwood and aspen woodlands, to lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests. Some of the study sites have a long history of research on the breeding birds (see below). Census sites are standardized at 5 ha in size, and mapped in detail (topography, vegetation). The locations and accessibility of the study sites permit all to be regularly and repeatedly censused during the short (6-week) breeding season. Census schedules, timing, and methodological protocols are being established and refined, to provide for strictly controlled inter-site and inter-year comparisons in breeding bird populations, species composition, and densities. In view of the projected benefits to science and resource management of this monitoring scheme, the project hopefully will be continued and the data base further expanded in future years, with a larger range of study sites (24-36).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document