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Project ID: 00-2-15

Year: 2001

Date Started: 01/18/2001

Date Completed: 10/04/2004

Title: A Demonstration Area on Ecosystem Response to Watershed-Scale Burns in Great Basin Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands

Project Proposal Abstract: Since European settlement of the Great Basin about 130 years ago, pinyon and juniper have exhibited significant increases in both area and stand densities. Progressive increases in woody and fine fuel loads coupled with the invasion of a highly flamable annual grass, cheatgrass, have resulted in dramatic increases in fire frequency, severity and size in the woodlands. To prevent the widespread deterioration of the woodlands and their associated communities, it will be necessary to implement proactive prescribed burning programs prior to stand closure and before cheatgrass dominance. This project would provide a demonstration watershed for illustrating both the feasibility and ecological effects of large-scale prescribed fire on pinyon-juniper dominated ecosystems to managers, researchers, and the public. Objectives include: (I) Illustrate the use of a watershed-scale approach to conducting prescribed bums; (2) Provide information on the costs associated with conducting a watershed-scale bum project; (3) Determine the recovery thresholds and successional trajectories for vegetation communities that have different stand densities of pinyon and juniper, i.e., early, mid, and late seral stands with low, intermediate, and high tree densities, and that occur at different elevations and aspects within the watersheds; (4) Determine the changes in fuel loads that occur with increasing stand densities of pinyon and juniper; (5) Examine the influence of differences in stand density and topographic position on soil properties that influence recovery potential and soil erosion; (6) Evaluate the effects of large-scale prescribed bum projects on stream channels, sedimentation and water quality. (7) Examine the effects of the burn on the species richness and occurrence of taxa shown to exhibit quantifiable responses to similar disturbances, i.e., butterflies. It would be a collaborative effort between the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management, Battle Mountain District. In addition to providing a demonstration area, it would be used to develop guidelines for evaluating the effects of stand density/seral stage on vegetation community and soil response to prescribedbums. Information on the changes in fuel loads that occur as stand density increases would be obtained. Also, much needed information on the effects of watershed-scale bums on stream channels, sedimentation and water quality and an important taxa in semi-arid, intermittent systems would be gathered.

Principal Investigator: Robin J. Tausch

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: RMRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Reno

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Michael C. Amacher	Forest Service	RMRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Logan
Co-Principal Investigator	Robert R. Blank	ARS-Agricultural Research Service	Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit
Co-Principal Investigator	Erica X. Fleishman	University of California-Davis	John Muir Institute of the Environment
Co-Principal Investigator	Dru Germanoski	Lafayette College	Department of Geology & Environmental Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator	Desiderio Zamudio	Forest Service	Humboldt-Toiyabe NF-Ecology Team
Collaborator/Contributor	Laurence Crabtree	Forest Service	Humboldt-Toiyabe NF-Mountain City Ranger District
Collaborator/Contributor	Dave Hanley	Forest Service	Humboldt-Toiyabe NF-Mountain City Ranger District
Collaborator/Contributor	Kenneth Smith	Merck Forest and Farmland Center
Federal Cooperator	Jeanne C. Chambers	Forest Service	RMRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Reno

Project Locations

Consortium

Great Basin

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	378	Refereed Publication	Primary Productivity and Species Richness: Relationships Among Functional Guilds, Residency Groups and Vagility Classes at Multiple Spatial Scales
	3923	Refereed Publication	A Successful Predictive Model of Species Richness Based on Indicator Species
	3918	Refereed Publication	Validation Tests of Predictive Models of Butterfly Occurrence Based on Environmental Variables
	3920	Refereed Publication	Hydrologic Response to Prescribed Fire in a Central Nevada Pinyon-Juniper (Pinus monophylla-juniperus osteosperma) Woodland
	3921	Refereed Publication	Primary Productivity and Species Richness: Relationships Among Functional Guilds, Residency Groups and Vagility Classes at Multiple Spatial Scales
	3919	Refereed Publication	Linking Models of Species Occurrence and Landscape Reconstruction
	3917	Refereed Publication	Distinguishing Between Signal and Noise in Faunal Responses to Environmental Change
	3916	Refereed Publication	Effects of Spatial Scale and Taxonomic Group on Partitioning of Butterfly and Bird Diversity in the Great Basin USA
	3915	Refereed Publication	Nestedness Analysis and Conservation Planning: The Importance of Place, Environment, and Life History Across Taxonomic Groups
	521	Refereed Publication	Linking Spatial Patterns of Bird and Butterfly Species Richness with Landsat TM Derived NDVI
	380	Refereed Publication	Effects of Spatial Scale and Taxonomic Group on Partitioning of Butterfly and Bird Diversity in the Great Basin
	94	Refereed Publication	Nestedness Analysis and Conservation Planning: The Importance of Place, Environment, and Life History Across Taxonomic Groups
	93	Refereed Publication	A Successful Predictive Model of Species Richness Based on Indicator Species
	92	Refereed Publication	Comparative Influence of Spatial Scale on Beta Diversity Within Regional Assemblages of Birds and Butterflies
	90	MS Thesis	Fuel Load and Understory Community Changes Associated with Varying Elevation and Pinyon-Juniper Dominance--Alicia Reiner
	3913	MS Thesis	Fuel Load and Understory Community Changes Associated with Varying Elevation and Pinyon-Juniper Dominance
	3911	MS Thesis	Refining the Umbrella Index Complex: An Application to Bird and Butterfly Communities in Montane Canyons in the Great Basin--C.J. Betrus

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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