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Fire and Riparian Ecosystems in Landscapes of
the Western USA
The paper "Fire and Riparian Ecosystems in Landscapes of the
Western USA" is based on a 2001 workshop Dr. Boone Kauffman,
then with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State
University, conducted for the Stream Systems Technology Center.
Workshop participants included a diverse group of 30 specialists
in the fields of fire science, fire management, riparian ecology,
hydrology and geomorphology. The group met for three days at the
Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona
and participated in a series of verbal and electronic discussions
using GroupSystems® software, a suite of tools designed to facilitate
collaboration and information sharing.
The goals of the workshop were to:
· Discuss the status of knowledge
on the relationships between fire and riparian zones at spatial
scales from the riparian area to the entire
landscape;
· Discuss the role and values that riparian
areas have for fire suppression;
· Discuss the effects of land and water
management on fire regimes (fire frequency, behavior and severity
within riparian zones); and on wildfire
control and use; and
· Identify knowledge gaps and needed research
on these subjects.
The 209 page report summarizing discussions from “The Workshop
on Multiples Influences of Riparian/Stream Ecosystems on Fires in
Western Forest Landscapes” can be downloaded from the STREAM
Web page (www.stream.fs.fed.us) or by going directly to “http://www.stream.fs.fed.us/publications/documentsStream.html”
and looking for the file “Riparian Fire Final.pdf.”
An abbreviated version of the workshop findings was recently published
by Kathleen A. Dwire, Research Ecologist with the Rocky Mountain
Research Station, and Boone Kauffmann, now Research Biologist
and Director of the Pacific Southwest Research Station Institute
of Pacific Islands Forestry, in Forest Ecology and Management.
The article notes that despite the numerous values of riparian
areas and the recognition of fire as a critical natural disturbance,
few studies have investigated the behavior, properties, and influences
of natural fire in riparian areas of the western USA. Riparian areas
frequently differ from adjacent uplands in vegetative composition
and structure, geomorphology, hydrology, microclimate, and fuel
characteristics and these features contribute to different fire
environments, fire regimes, and fire properties in riparian areas
relative to uplands.
In certain forested riparian areas, fire frequency has generally
been lower, and fire severity has been more moderate than in adjacent
uplands, but in other areas, fires have appeared to burn riparian
areas with comparable frequency. Impacts of land use and management
may strongly influence fire properties and regimes in riparian areas.
Fire suppression, livestock grazing, logging, damming and flow regulation,
agricultural diversions, channel modifications, and introduction
of invasive species have led to shifts in plant composition, structure
and distribution of fuel loads, and changes in microclimate and
aerial extent of riparian areas. These cumulative impacts of human
alterations are likely to exert the most pronounced influence on
fire behavior during periods of drought and under conditions of
extreme fire weather. Riparian plant species possess adaptations
to fluvial disturbances that facilitate survival and reestablishment
following fires and this contributes to the rapid recovery of many
streamside habitats. However, an improved understanding of fire
ecology and effects in riparian areas is needed to prescribe ecologically
sound rehabilitation projects flowing fires.
The above abstract is from: Kathleen A. Dwire and J. Boone Kauffman,
2003. Fire and riparian ecosystems in landscapes of the western
USA. Forest Ecology and Management 178 (2003) 61-74.
The paper by Dwire and Kauffman can be downloaded from www.sciencedirect.com.
Simply type “Fire and riparian” into the Quick Search
box and the title will be listed for retrieval as a pdf file.
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