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Project ID: 01-3-3-12

Year: 2002

Date Started: 01/30/2002

Date Completed: 12/01/2006

Title: Identifying Reference Conditions for Prescribed Fire Management of Mixed Conifer Forests in Yosemite National Park, California

Project Proposal Abstract: National Park Service policy directs managers to maintain natural environments that evolved with natural processes as opposed to processes that are associated with human action. A major stumbling block for managers implementing this policy is the need to identify a natural reference to both evaluate existing conditions and to identify process and structural goals for restoration to natural conditions. Removal of fire from mixed conifer forests in California for nearly a century has caused an increase in forest density, an increase in live and dead forest fuels, a compositional shift towards more fire intolerant species, and an increase in severe fire behavior. Available data on pre fire suppression forest conditions and fire regimes in the central Sierra Nevada are not sufficiently precise to guide development of process and structural objectives for mixed conifer ecosystems in the fire suppression zone in general and in Yosemite National Park in particular. In this zone, prescribed fire is one of the only tools available for forest restoration work. This project is designed to fill critical gaps in knowledge needed to develop and implement Yosemite National Parks fire management plan (JFSP Task # 3). The objectives of this project are to: 1) quantitatively describe pre-settlement, settlement, and fire suppression period fire regimes; 2) identify how fire regimes vary along major environmental and forest compositional gradients; and 3) identify pre fire suppression forest characteristics (basal area, density, size structure) at plot and landscape scales. Technology transfer will occur with a combination of written materials, presentations to agency staff and interagency organizations, and a worldwide web site.

Principal Investigator: Alan H. Taylor

Agency/Organization: Pennsylvania State University

Branch or Dept: Department of Geography

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Federal Cooperator	Kara J. Paintner	NPS-National Park Service	Natural Resource Program Center

Project Locations

Consortium

California

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
	1480	Refereed Publication	Drought Triggered Tree Mortality in Mixed Conifer Forests in Yosemite National Park

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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