Vegetation response after wildfires in national forests of northeastern Oregon

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In 1986 a rash of wildfires occurred across a wide area of the Blue and Wallowa Mountains and adjacent canyonlands of northeastern Oregon. The fires, starting in August and coupled with dry vegetation, produced burns of larger sizes and greater severities than had been the historic norm. As a result, a fire effects study was initiated by Deputy Forest Supervisor Joe Stockbridge for the fires of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. One of the underpinnings of the study was that many ecology plots and rangeland condition and trend transect clusters (C&T) pre-dating the fires were located on the largest burn of the 1986 fires. Plots established from 1978 and C&T clusters dating from 1959 to 1965 were plentiful across the Joseph-Starvation Burn complex. In both cases vegetation cover data by species and photographs taken from fixed camera points recorded the plant communities prior to the burn. Where plots did not exist, plots and camera points were established as reference points for following the succession of plants after the fire. Photography was/is a hallmark of this study. Liberal use of the camera resulted in both general and landscape views and specific plot views. In the case of plots established after the fire, photography taken immediately after the burn served as the benchmark. It was envisioned that following the fifth year, findings would be disseminated. However, large fires occurred on the three Forests in 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990. The study was expanded to encompass those fires in order to re-sample plots that pre-existed on the Umatilla and Malheur National Forests.

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Reference Code: U98JOH02IDUS

Full Citation: Johnson, C. G. 1998. Vegetation response after wildfires in National Forests of Northeastern Oregon. Tech. Pap. R6-NR-ECOL-TP-06-98. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, Portland, OR. 128 pp. plus appendices.

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