Recovery Status of a Sierra Nevada Forest Plant Community One-Half Century after Wildfire

Abstract

Comparison of the burned and unburned portions of a Jeffrey pine stand in the eastern Sierra Nevada that was partially destroyed by a wildfire approximately a half century earlier served as the basis of an investigation intended to provide insight into the direction and pace of unaided recovery from such events in this and similar forest cover types. With Jeffrey pine the predominant species regardless of treatment, lodgepole pine was a secondary component of the overstory in both stand portions but a minor representation of white fir in the unburned portion was absent from the burned acreage. Commensurate with the large difference in age, tree dimensions, basal area, and biomass in the overstory of the burned stand portion were greatly exceeded by those of the overstory in the unburned portion. Tree seedlings and saplings were much more abundant in the burned acreage, with those of Jeffrey pine largely accounting for the disparity. Predominant among shrubs in the understory of the burned stand portion was snowbrush ceanothus with that in the unburned portion consisting of prostrate ceanothus, while among herbaceous species a small quantity of Sandberg bluegrass in the former contrasted against none in the latter. Fine and total fuel loading along with fuel bed depth on the burned substrate were greatly exceeded by those on the unburned substrate, while proportionally, less fine fuels but more of the coarsest ones were found on the former compared to the latter.