An increase in continuous fine fuels promoted by the expansion of aggressive annual exotic grasses in the Intermountain West has altered the region's fire regimes, with both ecologic and economic ramifications. I examine the predictive nature of seasonal climatic variables, seasonal precipitation and temperature data up to 2 years before the actual summer fire season, to forecast the area burned by lightning-caused fires during the 13 fire seasons (1980-1992). Five climatically-distinct regions in the shadscale, sagebrush-steppe, sagebrush-semidesert, and open pine with grass communities of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah were included in the analysis. The amount of associated variance ranged from 43 to 62% between area burned and seasonal climatic variables. Results show that the seasonal climate that promotes fue is distinctly regional, even in areas of similar vegetation. However, the area burned increases primarily when the climate favors the growth of annual grasses over perennial species, or promotes either cooler or wetter conditions during the previous summer (fire) seasons. These results provide land managers with additional information for making decisions on presuppression activities. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.