Forest Management Commons^™

Latent Resilience In Ponderosa Pine Forest: Effects Of Resumed Frequent Fire, Andrew J. Larson, R. Travis Belote, C. Alina Cansler, Sean A. Parks, Matthew S. Dietz

Forest Management Faculty Publications

Ecological systems often exhibit resilient states that are maintained through negative feedbacks. In ponderosa pine forests, fire historically represented the negative feedback mechanism that maintained ecosystem resilience; fire exclusion reduced that resilience, predisposing the transition to an alternative ecosystem state upon reintroduction of fire. We evaluated the effects of reintroduced frequent wildfire in unlogged, fire-excluded, ponderosa pine forest in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, USA. Initial reintroduction of fire in 2003 reduced tree density and consumed surface fuels, but also stimulated establishment of a dense cohort of lodgepole pine, maintaining a trajectory toward an alternative state. Resumption of a frequent …