Abstract
Abstract Fire exclusion for more than a century in Olympic National Park changed old-growth Douglas-fir forest stand structure and species composition from an open structure of fire-adapted species to a more crowded, complex structure formed by fire-avoiding species. A previous study identified an historical mean fire return interval of 21 yr for these forests in the eastern Olympics prior to fire exclusion, with frequent, small surface fires maintaining an open forest. We tested whether Douglas-fir/salal forests would support low intensity prescribed fires, and monitored community responses for 3 yr post-fire in a randomized complete block ANOVA. Compared to pre-fire values, total fuels, 1000-hr fuels, 1-hr fuels, duff depth, total tree density, tree species density, sapling density, understory cover, and understory frequency of five prominent species were significantly lower one month post-fire. Differences in tree basal area, Douglas-fir sapling density, and western redcedar tree density were not signi...
Published Version
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