Fire regimes and stand dynamics in an upper montane forest landscape in the southern Cascades, Caribou Wilderness, California1

Abstract

fir forests experienced more high severity (38-75%) fire than other forest types (13-25%). Fire rotation varied by time period, and was shortest in the pre Euro-American period (76 yr), longer in the settlement period (177 yr), and longest in the fire suppression (577 yr) period. The average extent of a fire was small (150 ha). Lodgepole pine-red fir, white fir-Jeffrey pine, and red fir-white fir forests are changing in composition but lodgepole pine and red fir-western white pine forests are compositionally stable. Recurring fire in the presettlement period maintained fire-dependent pines but fire suppression is now causing shifts in species composition and changes in landscape scale vegetation patterns similar to those in lower montane forests.