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Fire Ecology And Wilderness Resource Advisors

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Fire Ecology And Wilderness Resource Advisors

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  1. This document is contained within the Fire Management Toolbox on Wilderness.net. Since other related resources found in this toolbox may be of interest, you can visit this toolbox by visiting the following URL: http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=toolboxes&sec=fire. All toolboxes are products of the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center.

  2. Fire Ecology And Wilderness Resource Advisors

  3. Outline • Fire Ecology • Information Needs • WFRA Role

  4. Fire Ecology Defined • A specialized branch of ecology • Focus is on the study of fire behavior and ecological effect

  5. Components • Disturbance Regimes and interactions • Fire Behavior • Fire Effects

  6. Disturbance Regimes • The frequency of fire in a specific geographic area. • Every community type is associated with a disturbance regime • Disturbance regimes are dependent upon many things

  7. 1895 35 acres 1958 40 acres 1920 88 acres 1984 189 acres 2000 233 acres

  8. Examples of Disturbance Regimes Source: Dickmann & Cleland FM = Forest Maintenance, FR = Forest Replacement, CM = Community Maintenance, SM = Savanna Maintenance

  9. Disturbance Regimes and Interactions • Climate • Weather • General physical setting • Landforms and soils • Vegetation

  10. Fire Behavior • Rate of spread • Intensity • Crown or ground • Continuous or non-continuous front • Complete burn or mosaic • Extreme fire behavior

  11. Fire Behavior • Why is it important to consider fire behavior? • Safety – volatile species • Fire behavior results in various fire effects • ROS – residence time • Intensity – ground or crown

  12. Fire Effects • Abiotic • Air • Soils • Water • Biotic - every single species reacts to fire in a unique manner! • Aquatic • Terrestrial

  13. Fire Effects - General • Fire effects vary by: • size and intensity of fire • individuals verses populations • the season as it relates to phenology • Many mechanisms of survival • protection of critical reproductive tissues • avoidance

  14. Fire Effects – Terrestrial Vegetation • Classified according to their response to fire • Fire-Intolerant Plants – highly flammable and completely destroyed • Fire-Tolerant Plants – able to withstand some forms of fire and grow despite some damage • Fire Resistant Plants – suffer little damage

  15. Fire Effects – Terrestrial Vegetation • Many different effects of fire on plants • Negative • Individual death • Positive • Alteration of surface light and/or temperature regime • Synchronous • Release of canopy seeds • Germination of soil seeds • Increased • Seedling establishment • Productivity • Flowering • Seed dispersal distances

  16. Fire Effects - Wildlife • Effects vary by: • species and mobility • habitat needs • age of animal • stage of fire – during and after • type of animal – predator verses prey

  17. Fire Ecology and WRA • Planning

  18. Fire Ecology and WRA • And more planning… • Tables

  19. Conclusions • Fire ecology is the study of the interactions of climate, weather, landforms, soil, and vegetation on fire, and the effects of fire on enumerable plant and animal species. • Fire ecology is extremely complex! • Every single plant and animal species reacts to fire in a unique manner!

  20. Resources • The Ecology of Fire – Robert J. Whelan • Fire Effects Information System www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ • Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System http://www.for.gov.bc.ca • Fire.Org http://fire.org/

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