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The Blue Mountain Fire Effects field trip was held during the 2014 Large Wildland Fires Conference in Missoula, MT, co-hosted by the Association for Fire Ecology and the International Association for Wildland Fire. The field trip summary and videos below capture the main topics discussed during the field trip. See also the Additional Resources from Dr. Dick Hutto's fire effects research. 

The Blue Mountain Fire Effects field trip included site visits to recently (1- to 11-year-old) burned areas of the Lolo National Forest. Trip leader, Dr. Dick Hutto, retired ecology professor with the University of Montana, has conducted much research on the effects of fire on bird communities. Observations and bird calls allowed field trip participants to witness what the bird response to fire was in dry mixed-conifer forests near Missoula, MT. 

  • The first field trip stop was a one-year-old burned site near Lolo, MT.
  • The second field trip stop was the edge between an eleven-year-old burned site and an unburned site in the Blue Mountain Recreation Area near Missoula, MT.
  • The third field trip stop was an interior portion of an eleven-year-old burned site in the Blue Mountain Recreation Area near Missoula, MT.
  • The final field trip stop was an interpretive area within the burned Blue Mountain Recreation Area.

The NRFSN developed these products to document the field trips that were organized in association with the Large Wildland Fires Conference organized by the International Association of Wildland Fire and the Association for Fire Ecology. Visit the Large Wildland Fires Conference page to view additional field trip videos, field trip summaries, and associated workshop materials. 

Thank you to Paul McDivitt for filming and editing these videos.

 

Related Documents from the Research and Publications Database

The ecological importance of severe fire - Site visits to Lolo Creek and Blue Mountain burned areas (Field trip summary) Corey L. Gucker

Positive effects of fire on birds may appear only under narrow combinations of fire severity and time-since-fire Richard L. Hutto et al.

Should scientists be required to use a model-based solution to adjust for possible distance-based detectability bias? Richard L. Hutto

Toward a more ecologically informed view of severe forest fires Richard L. Hutto et al.

A new forest fire paradigm: the need for high-severity fires Monica L. Bond et al.

The beauty of a burned forest Richard L. Hutto

The ecological importance of severe wildfires: some like it hot Richard L. Hutto

The effects of postfire salvage logging on cavity-nesting birds Richard L. Hutto et al.

The forgotten stage of forest succession: early-successional ecosystems on forest sites Mark E. Swanson et al.

Toward meaningful snag-management guidelines for postfire salvage logging in North American conifer forests Richard L. Hutto

Changes in bird abundance after wildfire: importance of fire severity and time since fire Kristina M. Smucker et al.

Blue mountain nature trail: a fire story U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service

Effects of wildfire and post-fire salvage logging on avian communities in conifer-dominated forests of the western United States Natasha B. Kotliar et al.

Chapter 3: Using bird ecology to learn about the benefits of severe fire Richard L. Hutto et al. Dominick A. DellaSala et al.

Recording(s)

Event Details

May 21 2014, All day
Hot Topic(s):
Ecological Effects of Severe Fire
Dick Hutto talking to the group

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