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Project ID: 01C-3-3-25

Year: 2003

Date Started: 07/18/2003

Date Completed: 01/03/2007

Title: Fire Regimes and Forest Reference Conditions for Prescribed Fire Management of Relic Mixed Conifer Forests in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

Project Proposal Abstract: National Park Service policy directs managers to maintain conditions that evolved with natural processes as opposed to conditions that are associated with human action. In order to achieve this policy, managers need a quantitative ecological reference that can be used to both evaluate current conditions and to design restoration treatments if conditions are outside the range of historic variability. In mixed conifer forests in the southwestern U.S. in general and in Guadalupe National Park in particular 20th century fire suppression has caused an increase in forest density, an increase in live and dead forest fuels, and an increase in fire sensitive species. These forest changes have also lead to more severe fire behavior in mixed conifer forests in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Data on the structure and composition of pre fire suppression forests, the role of fire in forest regeneration, and the frequency, return interval, extent, season, and severity of fire are currently insufficient to guide development of appropriate objectives for prescribed fire management in highly altered mixed conifer forest ecosystems. Mixed conifer forests in Guadalupe Mountains National Park occur mainly in designated wilderness where 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 Guadalupe Mountains National Parks fire management plan (JFSP Task # 3). The project goal is to develop fire regime and forest structural reference conditions for prescribed fire managers aiming to both reduce fuels and restore forests to more natural condition. Specific objectives include: 1) to quantify pre fire suppression and contemporary forest characteristics (species composition, basal area, density, size and age structure) at both the plot and landscape scale; 2) to quantify fire regimes (frequency, return interval, size, severity, season, fire rotation) for the presettlement, settlement, and fire suppression periods; 3) to quantify spatial and temporal variation in fire regimes and forest structure with respect to topography and forest composition. Results will also be used to develop and integrate cross-agency objectives for prescribed fire use with the adjacent Lincoln National Forest. Technology transfer will occur with a combination of written materials, presentations to agency staff, field visits, and a worldwide web site.

Principal Investigator: Kathy M. Davis

Agency/Organization: NPS-National Park Service

Branch or Dept: Montezuma Castle National Monument

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Fred Armstrong	NPS-National Park Service	Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Co-Principal Investigator	Paul Schmidtke	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Carlsbad Interagency Fire Organization
Co-Principal Investigator	Alan H. Taylor	Pennsylvania State University	Department of Geography
Federal Cooperator	Kathy M. Davis	NPS-National Park Service	Montezuma Castle National Monument
Federal Fiscal Representative	Richard G. Gatewood	NPS-National Park Service	Big Bend National Park
Manager/Coordinator	Ellis Richard	NPS-National Park Service	Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Project Locations

Consortium

Southwest

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
	6249	Refereed Publication	Fire Regimes and Forest Structure in a Sky Island Mixed Conifer Forest, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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