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Fire regimes of northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities

Citation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2012. Information from LANDFIRE on fire regimes of northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/fire_regimes/Northern_RM_juniper/all.html [].

A complete Fire Regime Synthesis for northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities has not yet been published in the Fire Effects Information System. However, information is available from LANDFIRE succession modeling of Biophysical Settings (BpS). Table 1 summarizes LANDFIRE data on the BpSs in northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities. Figure 1 shows where they occur. Appendix A lists the BpSs and the results of LANDFIRE succession modeling for each BpS in northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities.

Table 1. Modeled fire intervals and severities in northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities [3]
Fire interval¹
Fire severity² (% of fires)
Number of Biophysical Settings (BpSs) in each fire regime group
  Replacement Mixed Low I II III IV V NA³
62-185 years 18-44 31-65 6-51 0 0 6 0 0 0
¹Average historical fire-return interval derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling (labeled "MFRI" in LANDFIRE).
²Percentage of fires in 3 fire severity classes, derived from LANDFIRE succession modeling. Replacement-severity fires cause >75% kill or top-kill of the upper canopy layer; mixed-severity fires cause 26%-75%; low-severity fires cause <26% [1,2].
³NA (not applicable) refers to BpS models that did not include fire in simulations.

Figure 1. Land cover distribution of northern Rocky Mountain juniper communities based on the LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings (BpS) data layer [3]. Numbers indicate LANDFIRE map zones. LANDFIRE did not map every BpS in this group. Click on the map for a larger image and zoom in to see details.

References:

1. Barrett, S.; Havlina, D.; Jones, J.; Hann, W.; Frame, C.; Hamilton, D.; Schon, K.; Demeo, T.; Hutter, L.; Menakis, J. 2010. Interagency fire regime condition class guidebook (FRCC), [Online], (Version 3.0). In: Interagency fire regime condition class website. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior; The Nature Conservancy (Producers). Available: https://www.frames.gov/files/7313/8388/1679/FRCC_Guidebook_2010_final.pdf [2017, March 1]. [85876].

2. LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment. 2005. Reference condition modeling manual (Version 2.1). Cooperative Agreement 04-CA-11132543-189. Boulder, CO: The Nature Conservancy; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; U.S. Department of the Interior. 72 p. On file at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT. [66741]

3. LANDFIRE. 2008. CONUS refresh (LANDFIRE 1.1.0). Biophysical settings layer. In: LANDFIRE data distribution site, [Online]. In: LANDFIRE. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey (Producer). Available: https://landfire.cr.usgs.gov/viewer/ [2015, October 7]. [89416]
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