Fire Regimes, Forest Succession, and the Effects of Fire Suppression in Whitebark Pine Forests

Investigator: Evan Larson

This is my dissertation research exploring the variations in forest dynamics and disturbance regimes in whitebark pine forests across the central range of the species' distribution. I have study sites ranging from the Gravelly Range in SW Montana, across central Idaho, into the Wallowa Mountains in eastern Oregon and finishing in the Cascades. At each of these sites I am looking at stand structure and disturbance history to describe the diversity in these characteristics of whitebark pine forests, and to explore the influences of biophysical setting on the development of whitebark pine communities. This project grew out of my M.S. thesis research looking at fire history in whitebark pine forests on three mountains in the Lolo National Forest near Missoula, Montana.