Sierra Nevada Network
Monitoring: Vital Signs
Thirteen Vital Signs: Fire Regimes
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Prescribed Fire: a critical element in the ecology of the Sierra Nevada. |
Below is more detailed information on the thirteen vital signs that the Sierra Nevada Network will pursue for protocol development. Several Vital Signs are grouped according to the wider ecosystem being studied. Current sampling designs and protocols are found in the Sierra Nevada Network: Vital Signs Monitoring Plan (2007).
Abbreviations:
SIEN Sierra Nevada Network
DEPO Devils Postpile National Monument
SEKI Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Park
YOSE Yosemite National Park
The parks' fire monitoring programs began in 1982 for Sequoia & Kings Canyon, 1978 for Yosemite and 1992 for Devils Postpile. The programs in Sequoia & Kings Canyon and Yosemite initially focused on monitoring weather and fire behavior, vegetation, and dead and down surface fuels in giant sequoia groves and other early experimental prescribed burns in mixed-conifer forests. Over time, the monitoring programs expanded to other plant communities as the prescribed fire programs progressed. In recent years, Sierra Nevada fire-monitoring programs have broadened to include additional vegetation, wildlife, water, and/or fire regime components. Devils Postpile does not currently have a Fire and Fuels Management Plan (NPS, in progress); however, fire effects monitoring plots were established in association with a 1992 wildfire that burned approximately twothirds of the monument.
Monitoring environmental and fire condition provides information to guide fire management strategies for both wildland and prescribed fires; such monitoring encompasses a wide variety of fire topics, including
- environmental and fire conditions
- fire effects on vegetation and fuels
- mechanical fuels-treatment monitoring
- fire effects on animals
- fires effects on water
- fire regimes, restoration, baseline fire history
In addition to fire-related monitoring conducted by SIEN park staff, USGS-Western Ecological Research Center staff at both Sequoia and Kings Canyon and Yosemite Field Stations have contributed a huge amount of fire-related monitoring in SIEN parks and the greater Sierra Nevada region. USGS projects in our parks are an integral part of NPS resource management information and decision-making.
Current planning status is found in the
Sierra Nevada Network: Vital Signs Monitoring Plan (2007).
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Postpile National Monument