Fire in Steppe Vegetation of the Northern Intermountain Region.

摘要

Managers often want to restore historical disturbance regimes. In the northern intermountain region, there is considerable interest in using fire as a management tool to accomplish a variety of objectives in steppe vegetation. Little information is available on the fire regimes of northern intermountain steppe vegetation before the arrival of Euroamericans. Similarly, we know little about how often Native Americans set fire to intermountain grasslands. Dry coniferous forests experienced frequent low-intensity fires, many of which resulted from human activities. It is likely that some of these natural and anthropogenic fires also burned steppe vegetation; however, the frequency and timing of those fires are not known. Soon after Euroamericans arrived in the region, fires may have become more frequent, but eventually fire suppression in uplands and the cessation of burning by Native Americans probably reduced the frequency of fire at moderate elevations. It is unlikely that fire suppression was effective in steep canyons.