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Fire-Dependent Forests in the Northern Rocky Mountains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James R. Habeck  and
Robert W. Mutch
James R. Habeck
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59801 USA
Robert W. Mutch
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Northern Forest Fire Laboratory, Missoula, Montana 59801 USA
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Abstract

One objective of wilderness and parkland fire-ecology research is to describe the relationships between fire and unmanaged ecosystems, so that strategies can be determined that will provide a more nearly natural incidence of fire. More than 50 yr of efforts directed toward exclusion of wildland fires in the Northern Rocky Mountains (western Montana and northern Idaho) have resulted in a definite and observable impact on the forest ecosystems in this region. Fire-ecology investigations in Glacier National Park and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness have helped to reveal the nature of this impact and to provide a better understanding of the natural role of fire within these coniferous ecosystems. Such areas provide a unique opportunity to study and test approaches designed to perpetuate unmodified ecosystems. However, we still don't understand all of the long-term consequences of fire control in those forest communities that have evolved fire-dependent characteristics.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , October 1973 , pp. 408 - 424
Copyright
University of Washington

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