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Full-Text Articles in Earth Sciences
Holocene Fire History Reconstruction Of A Mid-Evaluation Mixed-Conifer Forest In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Zoe Rushton
Holocene Fire History Reconstruction Of A Mid-Evaluation Mixed-Conifer Forest In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Zoe Rushton
All Master's Theses
Fire histories of mid-elevation mixed-conifer forests (MEMC) are uncommon, particularly in the eastern Cascades of Washington. As a result, fire regimes and the effects of 20th century fire suppression in these forests are not well understood. In the summer of 2014 a 7.80 meter-long sediment core was extracted from Long Lake, located approximately 45 km west of Yakima, WA, which exists in a grand fir-dominated mixed-conifer forest. Fire activity for the Long Lake watershed was reconstructed using macroscopic charcoal analysis and pollen analysis was used to reconstruct vegetation change through time. Charcoal results show low fire activity in the early …
Two Post-Glacial Sagebrush Steppe Fire Records At The Wildland-Urban Interface, Eastern Cascades, Washington, Dusty Pilkington
Two Post-Glacial Sagebrush Steppe Fire Records At The Wildland-Urban Interface, Eastern Cascades, Washington, Dusty Pilkington
All Master's Theses
Recent increases in large fires in the rapidly developing wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas of central Washington, where development intermixes with wildland fuels, contribute to federal firefighting costs exceeding of $1 billion annually. In addition, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion and anthropogenic-caused warming shorten fire return intervals while lengthening fire seasons. These climatic, ecological, economic, and social factors combine with fuel accumulation resulting from historic fire suppression to threaten lives and property in the WUI. To plan for safe growth in WUI areas, long-term fire histories are needed to expand understanding of past fire regimes in an understudied ecosystem, sagebrush …