Register      Login
International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > WF > WF08001
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 19(1)

Comparing selected fire regime condition class (FRCC) and LANDFIRE vegetation model results with tree-ring data

Tyson L. Swetnam A and Peter M. Brown B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

B Rocky Mountain Tree Ring Research, 2901 Moore Lane, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.

C Corresponding author. Email: pmb@rmtrr.org

International Journal of Wildland Fire 19(1) 1-13 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF08001
Submitted: 3 January 2008  Accepted: 3 June 2009   Published: 5 February 2010

Abstract

Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) has been developed as a nationally consistent interagency method in the US to assess degree of departure between historical and current fire regimes and vegetation structural conditions across differing vegetation types. Historical and existing vegetation map data also are being developed for the nationwide LANDFIRE project to aid in FRCC assessments. Here, we compare selected FRCC and LANDFIRE vegetation characteristics derived from simulation modeling with similar characteristics reconstructed from tree-ring data collected from 11 forested sites in Utah. Reconstructed reference conditions based on trees present in 1880 compared with reference conditions modeled by the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool for individual Biophysical Settings (BpS) used in FRCC and LANDFIRE assessments showed significance relationships for ponderosa pine, aspen, and mixed-conifer BpS but not for spruce–fir, piñon–juniper, or lodgepole pine BpS. LANDFIRE map data were found to be ~58% accurate for BpS and ~60% accurate for existing vegetation types. Results suggest that limited sampling of age-to-size relationships by different species may be needed to help refine reference condition definitions used in FRCC assessments, and that more empirical data are needed to better parameterize FRCC vegetation models in especially low-frequency fire types.

Additional keywords: reference conditions, successional classes, Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT).


Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to Emily Heyerdahl, Stan Kitchen, and Marc Weber for sharing data from the tree-ring project in Utah. The Utah project was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program, Fishlake National Forest, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Utah Bureau of Land Management, and Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research. We thank Brendan Ward, Kathy Schon, and Jim Menakis with the LANDFIRE project for sharing their expertise and data for this research. Phil Guertin, Steve Yool, Tom Swetnam, Wendel Hann, Steve Barrett, and three anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by the National Interagency Fuels Technology Transfer Team that is responsible for development and updating of FRCC methods and vegetation models.


References


Beukema SJ, Kurz WA (2003) ‘Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool and User’s Guide, Version 4.0.’ (ESSA Technologies Ltd: Vancouver, BC)

Brown PM (2006) Climate effects on fire regimes and tree recruitment in Black Hills ponderosa pine forests. Ecology  87, 2500–2510.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | Comers P, Faber-Langendoen D, Evans R, Gawler S, Josse C, Kittel G, Menard S, Pyne M, Reid M, Schulz K, Snow K, Teague J (2003) ‘Ecological Systems of the United States: a Working Classification of US Terrestrial Systems.’ (NatureServe: Arlington, VA)

Hann WJ , Bunnell DL (2001) Fire and land management planning and implementation across multiple scales. International Journal of Wildland Fire  10, 389–403.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Hann WJ, Strohm DJ (2003) Fire regime condition class and associated data for fire and fuels planning: methods and applications. In ‘Fire, Fuel Treatments, and Ecological Restoration: Conference proceedings’, 16–18 April 2002, Fort Collins, CO. (Tech. Eds PN Omi, LA Joyce) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Proceedings RMRS-P-29, pp. 337–443. (Fort Collins, CO)

Hann WJ, Havlina D, Shlisky A, Barrett S, Pohl K (2003) Project scale Fire Regime and Condition Class guidebook. (USDA Forest Service, US Department of the Interior, The Nature Conservancy, and Systems for Environmental Management) Available at http://www.frcc.gov/ [Verified 12 September 2008]

Hann W, Shlisky A, Havlina D, Schon K, Barrett S, DeMeo T, Pohl K, Menakis J, Hamilton D, Jones J, Levesque M (2004) Interagency Fire Regime Condition Class Guidebook. USDA Forest Service, USDI, The Nature Conservancy, and Systems for Environmental Management. Available at http://www.frcc.gov/ [Verified 12 September 2008]

Heyerdahl EK, Brown PM, Kitchen S, Weber MH (2005) Historical fire regimes and forest structure in Utah forests. Final report to the Utah State Bureau of Land Management. Available at http://www.rmtrr.org/Utahfirehistory/ [Verified 12 September 2008]

Heyerdahl EK, Miller RF , Parsons RA (2006) History of fire and Douglas-fir establishment in a savanna and sagebrush–grassland mosaic, south-western Montana, USA. Forest Ecology and Management  230, 107–118.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | HFRA (2003) Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003. Public Law 108–148, Statutes at Large 117:1887.

Jonsson B, Holm S , Kallur H (1992) A forest inventory method based on density-adapted circular plot size. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research  7, 405–421.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Keane RE, Rollins MG, McNicoll CH, Parsons RA (2002) Integrating ecosystem sampling, gradient modeling, remote sensing, and ecosystem simulation to create spatially explicit landscape inventories. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-92. (Fort Collins, CO)

Küchler AW (1964) Potential natural vegetation of the conterminous United States. American Geographical Society, Special Publication 36.

Morgan P, Hardy CC, Swetnam TW, Rollins MG , Long DG (2001) Mapping fire regimes across time and space: understanding coarse and fine-scale fire patterns. International Journal of Wildland Fire  10, 329–342.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | NRCS (2003) ‘National Range and Pasture Handbook.’ (USDA National Resource Conservation Service: Washington, DC)

Rollins MG, Frame CK (2006) The LANDFIRE Prototype Project: nationally consistent and locally relevant geospatial data for wildland fire management. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-175. (Fort Collins, CO)

Romme W, Allen C, Bailey J, Baker W, Bestelmeyer B, Brown P, Eisenhart K, Floyd L, Huffman D, Jacobs B, Miller R, Muldavin E, Swetnam T, Tausch R , Weisberg P (2009) Historical and modern disturbance regimes, stand structures, and landscape dynamics in piñon–juniper vegetation of the western United States. Rangeland Ecology and Management  62, 203–222.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Schmidt KM, Menakis JP, Hardy CC, Hann WJ, Bunnell DL (2002) Development of coarse-scale spatial data for wildland fire and fuel management. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-87. (Fort Collins, CO)

Schoennagel T, Veblen TT , Romme WH (2004) The interaction of fire, fuels, and climate across Rocky Mountain forests. Bioscience  54, 661–676.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Shlisky A, Hann WJ (2003) Rapid scientific assessment of mid-scale fire regime conditions in the Western US. In ‘Proceedings, 3rd International Wildland Fire Conference’, 3–6 October 2003, Sydney, Australia.

StatSoft Inc. (2008) Statistica (data analysis software system), version 8.0. Available at www.statsoft.com [Verified 12 September 2008]

USDA/USDI (2000) National fire plan: managing the impact of wildfires on communities and the environment. A report to the President in response to the wildfires of 2000. Available at http://www.fireplan.gov/ [Verified 12 September 2008]

Zhu Z, Vogelmann J, Ohlen D, Kost J, Chen X, Tolk B (2006) Mapping existing vegetation composition and structure for the LANDFIRE Prototype Project. In ‘The LANDFIRE Prototype Project: Nationally Consistent and Locally Relevant Geospatial Data for Wildland Fire Management’. (Tech. Eds MG Rollins, CK Frame) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-175. (Fort Collins, CO)