Cataloging Information
Extreme Fire Behavior
Case Studies
A mixed severity fire regime historically created complex landscape structures in ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range. Mitigating present wildfire risks and restoring these forests to ecologically sustainable conditions requires new guidelines for landscape treatment. However, vast acreages need treatment while only limited resources are available. A landscape strategy is needed to provide the greatest ecological benefit and protection from severe wildfire over the largest area at the least cost. Modeling focuses on simulating vegetation changes spatially in the presence and interaction of insects, disease, and wildland fire, and on optimal scheduling of treatments that effectively meet resource and management objectives. This research uses historical characteristics of a landscape shaped by a historical mixed severity fire regime, obtained from research on an unlogged ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir landscape in the South Platte watershed southwest of Denver, CO.