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Wildlife Need Structure
Fire Ecology and the Beneficial Aspects of Fire
Kris McCleary
Foothills Model Forest CIF Wildfire: Trends, Challenges and Choices May 13, 2000
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Outline
• Fire ecology
– fire regimes
– landscape level effects
– plants/animals
• Foothills Model Forest Natural
Disturbance Research Program
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Fire is a Natural Part of
Ecosystems
• Have shaped landscapes and determined
productivity for thousands of years
• Lightning starts over 6000 fires each year in
the US
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Fire is a Natural Part of
Ecosystems
• Native Americans used fires for hunting and
food production
• Animal species native to fire adapted
ecosystems are adapted to fire and many
actually benefit
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Fire and Landscape Pattern
• Driving force in structuring landscape
patterns, species diversity and composition
• Future disturbance behavior is determined
by the patterns that result from fire
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Fire and Landscape Pattern
• Increased habitat heterogeneity leads to
increased species diversity
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Fire Regimes: Stand Maintaining
• Generally not lethal to dominant vegetation
• Do not substantially change structure of
dominant vegetation
• Approximately 80 of above ground
vegetation survives
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Stand Maintaining Fire:
Succession
• Fires maintain open forest floor
• Occasionally old trees are killed, providing
seedbed for new seedlings
• Often results in multiple even-aged stands
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Fire Regimes: Stand Replacing
• Fires kill the above ground parts of
dominant vegetation
• Approximately 80% of above ground
vegetation is killed
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Stand Replacing Fire: Succession
• Fire creates seedbed and nutrient supply for
new seedlings
• Lodgepole pine cones open and fall to
ground
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Stand Replacing Fire: Succession
• Deciduous shrubs resprout and dominate for
a while
• Regenerating stands often produce large
amounts of browse until the canopy closes
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Stand Replacing Fire: Succession
• Bottom line:
– Reduces habitat quality for species that need
dense cover, increases habitat quality for those
that like open sites
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Influence of Fire on Wildlife
Populations
• Variety is the order of the day
• Discussion is limited to species we have
information on
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Influence of Fire on Wildlife
Populations
• Habitat changes influence populations more
than fire itself
• Increases in some species and decreases in
others
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Influence of Fire on Wildlife
Populations
• Examples:
– Fires favor raptors by decreasing cover and
exposing prey
– Small carnivores respond to changes in small
mammal populations
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Influence of Fire on Wildlife
Populations
• Examples:
– Large carnivores are largely unaffected as they
have large home ranges
– Species that prefer mature forest decrease if
remnants of forest aren’t left
– Species that prefer a dense closed canopy
decrease
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Wildlife Need Structure
• Standing dead trees
– become food for insects
– insects provide food for birds
– provide perches for raptors
– decaying trees provide nest sites for
woodpeckers and then secondary cavity nesters
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Wildlife Need Structure
• Fallen dead trees
– provide cover for small mammals, salamanders,
ground nesting birds
– fungi living in fallen trees provide food for
birds and small mammals
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Fire Effects on Wildlife Forage
• Often increases/improves forage for up to
100 years
• Provides a diversity of vegetative
communities from which to select food
species
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Fire Effects on Wildlife Forage
• Usually results in increased biomass of
forage species
• May increase nutritional content and
digestibility of plants
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Effects of Fire Exclusion
• Changes in seral stage distribution
• Changes in fuel loads, leading to changes in
fire intensity
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Beneficial Aspects of Fire
• Maintains a range of plant communities
(seral stages) which in term provides habitat
for a diversity of animals
• Positive/negative effect on animals depends
on habitat preferences but many benefit
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Foothills Model Forest
Natural Disturbance Program
1996-2000
WWW.FMF.AB.CA
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Program Support
- Foothills Model Forest
- CFS
- Weldwood of Canada, Hinton Division
- Jasper National Park
- Alberta Environment
-Alberta Newsprint Company
Collaborators
- U.of A. Cultural Ecology and Restoration Program
- Weyerhaeuser Canada
- U of A Biological Sciences
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Organization of NDP
Program Coord. & Science - David Andison
Program Biologist - Kris McCleary
Program Team: - Hugh Lougheed, Weldwood
- Alan Westhaver, JNP
- Don Harrison, AEP
- Dan Farr, Foothills Model Forest
- Greg Branton, ANC
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N
A l b e r t a
Weldwood FMA Willmore
Wilderness Area
Study Area = Foothills Model Forest +
ANC
N Jasper
National
Park Provincial &
Municipal Lands
Alberta Newsprint Co.
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“What are the historical, “natural”
disturbance patterns on the Foothills Model
Forest?”
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“What are the historical, “natural”
disturbance patterns on the Foothills
Model Forest?”
Stand replacing or stand maintaining?
Patch size distribution?
How are patch shape and size related to non-forested?
Range of seral-stage percentages?
Numbers and sizes of island remnants?
Edge architecture? Dead standing?
Coarse woody debris?
Patch shape distribution?
Change in structure through riparian strips?
Topographic “hot” and “cold” spots?
How many disturbance regimes are there?
Within-stand age cohorts?
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The ND Program Includes Many Projects,
Defined by Scale
Region - Foothills Model Forest
Landscape - Upper Foothills
Natural Sub-region
Disturbance - Gregg River Burn
Stand - Remnant island
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Why Study Natural Disturbance Patterns?
- Develop and defend management strategies based on
historical precedent
- Template for maintaining biodiversity through
“emulation” of ecological patterns
- “Pattern” is quantifiable
--> allows translation to planning
--> use in monitoring programs
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Project Example #1:
Managing for old growth on the
Weldwood FMA
Practical Question:
What amounts of old growth forest are
appropriate to manage for on the FMA over the
long term from a biodiversity perspective?
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Non-forested
Year of stand origin<18501851 - 19001901 - 19501951 - 1996No data
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Older Forest as of 1950 on the
Weldwood FMA
Ecological Region %>300 yrs %>200 yrs %>100 yrs
Lower Foothills 0 0 16
Upper Foothills 0 4 21
Subalpine east 2 15 45
Note that these represent “natural” percentages
of older forest.
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HOWEVER, despite high data quality, the
description of old growth “pattern” is limited
by the sample size (1).
So far….
• Distinctive levels of young, mid-seral, and old
growth forest in each ecological region.
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0
25
50
75
100
Y P M O
AC Distribution
Landscape in 1950 - Initial Condition
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0
25
50
75
100
Y P M O
AC Distribution
Landscape in 20 Years?
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Older Forest as of 1950 on the
Weldwood FMA
Ecological Region %>300 yrs %>200 yrs %>100 yrs
Lower Foothills 0 0 16
Upper Foothills 0 4 21
Subalpine east 2 15 45
The simple answer.
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Percent Area >200 Years
Fre
qu
en
cy
4%
Projected Historical Range of Area for the Mature Forest of the Upper Foothills
The more precise answer.
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Foothills Model Forest Natural
Disturbance Research Program
• Natural disturbance research at all scales
• Presently in year 5 of the program
• Based on scientific research
• Driven by practical questions that are
guided by project partners
WWW.FMF.AB.CA