# Fire data from the Colorado Front Range #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program # National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # Template Version 4.0 # Encoding: UTF-8 # NOTE: Please cite original publication, NOAA Landing Page URL, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, study title, NOAA Landing Page URL, and date accessed. # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # NOAA_Landing_Page: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/paleo-search/study/17194 # Landing_Page_Description: NOAA Landing Page which includes all study metadata. #z # Study_Level_JSON_Metadata: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/paleo-search/study/search.json?xmlId=14842 # Study_Level_JSON_Description: JSON metadata which includes all study metadata. # # Data_Type: Fire History # # Dataset_DOI: # # Science_Keywords: # #-------------------- # Resource_Links # # Data_Download_Resource: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/colorado-front-range-2014/readme-co-front-range-2014-noaa.txt # Data_Download_Description: Metadata, NOAA Template File; Readme containing study metadata # # Data_Download_Resource: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/colorado-front-range-2014/s1-co-front-range-2014.csv # Data_Download_Description: Data Sites, CSV Format; Table of Fire Scar and Establishment Data Sites, including site metadata and data download links # #-------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 09/24/2024 #-------------------- # File_Last_Modified_Date # Date: 01/27/2023 #-------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Fire data from the Colorado Front Range #-------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Gartner, M.H.; Sherriff, R.L.; Veblen, T.T.; Schoennagel, T.L. #-------------------- # Description_Notes_and_Keywords # Description: This dataset is in progress and will contain fire scar and establishment data data sites contributed to the International Paleo-fire Multi-proxy Database (IMPD)from Sherriff et al., 2014 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106971), Gartner et at., 2012 (doi: dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF10103), Sherriff et al., 2006, Schoennagel et al., 2011 (doi: 10.1890/10-1222.1), and Sherriff et al., 2007 (doi: 10.1007/s10021-007-9022-2). # # All fire scar site FHX data, establishment data, and metadata of this study, along with all other IMPD North America fire scar files, are located at: # https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/ # https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/establishment/northamerica/ # # Please visit the following S1 file for an up to date list of metadata for all fire scar data sites: # https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/colorado-front-range-2014/s1-colorado-front-range-2014.csv # A description for each column of this file follows: # A. site_name - name of the fire scar site # B. impd_code - International Multi-proxy Paleofire Database(IMPD) code, # assigned by NOAA # C. Investigators - investigators # D. first_year - earliest year contained in the FHX data file, AD units # E. last_year - most recent year in the FHX file, AD units # F. latitude - latitude in decimal degrees # G. longitude - latitude in decimal degrees # H. elevation - elevation in meters # I. species - species codes; a full description of each species code is # available from URL: # https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/templates/tree-species-code.csv # J. number_of_trees - count of trees in the sites FHX data file # K. reference_1 - top-ranked publication, any others are listed in the # sites metadata file, listed in column Q, link_to_metadata # L. dataset_doi - DOI for the data of the site # M. contribution_year - year the site was contributed # N. NOAA_study_id - study identifier, assigned by NOAA # O. link_to_firescar_data - online resource for the FHX data file # P. link_to_firescar_metadata - online resource for complete metadata for the site, # in NOAA Template format. # Note: this file contains the online resource links for all data. # Q. link_to_establishemt_data - online resource for the establishment data file # R. link_to_establishment_metadata - online resource for complete metadata for the site, # in NOAA Template format. # Note: this file contains the online resource links for all data. # S. link_to_landing_page - link to NOAA landing page for the site # # The original files contributed are located at: # https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/colorado-front-range/supplemenal/original-data-contributed/ #-------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: # Grant: #-------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: # Grant: #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen # Published_Date_or_Year: 2006 # Published_Title: Ecological effects of changes in fire regimes in Pinus ponderosa ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range # Journal_Name: Journal of Vegetation Science # Volume: 17.0 # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: 205-218 # Report_Number: # DOI: # Publication_Place: # Publisher: # ISBN: # Online_Resource: # Other_Reference_Details: # Full_Citation: Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Ecological effects of changes in fire regimes in Pinus ponderosa ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range. Journal of Vegetation Science 17: 205-218. # Abstract: # Question: What is the relative importance of low- and high severity fires in shaping forest structure across the range of Pinus ponderosa in northern Colorado? Location: Colorado Front Range, USA. Methods: To assess severities of historic fires, 24 sites were sampled across an elevation range of 1800 to 2800 m for fire scars, tree establishment dates, tree mortality, and changes in tree-ring growth. Results: Below 1950 m, the high number of fire scars, scarcity of large post-fire cohorts, and lack of synchronous tree mortality or growth releases, indicate that historic fires were of low severity. In contrast, above 2200 m, fire severity was greater but frequency of widespread fires was substantially less. At 18 sites above 1950 m, 34 to 80% of the live trees date from establishment associated with the last moderate- to high severity fire. In these 18 sites, only 2 to 52% of the living trees pre-date these fires suggesting that fire severities prior to any effects of fire suppression were sufficient to kill many trees. Conclusions: These findings for the P. ponderosa zone above ca. 2200 m (i.e. most of the zone) contradict the widespread perception that fire exclusion, at least at the stand scale of tens to hundreds of hectares, has resulted in unnaturally high stand densities or in an atypical abundance of shade-tolerant species. At relatively mesic sites (e.g. higher elevation, north-facing), the historic fire regime consisted of a variable-severity regime, but forest structure was shaped primarily by severe fires rather than by surface fires. # #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen # Published_Date_or_Year: 2007 # Published_Title: A spatially-explicit reconstruction of fire regime types in ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range # Journal_Name: Ecosystems # Volume: 10.0 # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: 311-323 # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1007/s10021-007-9022-2 # Publication_Place: # Publisher: # ISBN: # Online_Resource: # Other_Reference_Details: # Full_Citation: Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. 2007. A spatially-explicit reconstruction of fire regime types in ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range. Ecosystems 10: 311-323. # Abstract: # A key issue in ecosystem management in the western U.S. is the determination of the historic range of variability of fire and its ecological significance prior to major land-use changes associated with Euro-American settlement. The present study relates spatial variation in historical fire occurrence to variation in abiotic and biotic predictors of fire frequency and severity across the elevational range of ponderosa pine in northern Colorado. Logistic regression was used to relate fire frequency to environmental predictors and to derive a probability surface for mapping purposes. These results indicate that less than 20% of the ponderosa pine zone had an historic fire regime (pre-1915) of relatively frequent fires (mean fire intervals, MFI, <30 years). More than 80% is reconstructed to have had a lower frequency (MFI ? 30 years), more variable severity fire regime. High fire frequency is clearly associated with low elevations. Lower and more variable fire frequencies, associated with high and moderate severities, occur across a broad range of elevation and are related to variations in other environmental variables. Only a small part of the ponderosa pine zone fits the widespread view that the historic fire regime was characterized mainly by frequent, low-severity that maintained open conditions. Management attempts to restore historic forest structures and/or fire conditions must recognize that infrequent severe fires were an important component of the historic fire regime in this cover type in northern Colorado. # #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Schoennagel, T.L., R.L. Sherriff, and T.T. Veblen # Published_Date_or_Year: 2011 # Published_Title: Fire history and tree recruitment in the upper montane zone of the Colorado Front Range: implications for forest restoration # Journal_Name: Ecological Applications # Volume: 21.0 # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: 2210-2222 # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1890/10-1222.1 # Publication_Place: # Publisher: # ISBN: # Online_Resource: # Other_Reference_Details: # Full_Citation: Schoennagel, T.L., R.L. Sherriff, and T.T. Veblen. 2011. Fire history and tree recruitment in the upper montane zone of the Colorado Front Range: implications for forest restoration. Ecological Applications 21: 2210-2222. # Abstract: # Forests experiencing moderate- or mixed-severity fire regimes are presumed to be widespread across the western United States, but few studies have characterized these complex disturbance regimes and their effects on contemporary forest structure. Restoration of pre-fire-suppression open-forest structure to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic stand-replacing fires is a guiding principle in forest management policy, but identifying which forests are clear candidates for restoration remains a challenge. We conducted dendroecological reconstructions of fire history and stand structure at 40 sites in the upper montane zone of the Colorado Front Range (2400-2800 m), sampled in proportion to the distribution of forest types in that zone (50% dominated by ponderosa pine, 28% by lodgepole pine, 12% by aspen, 10% by Douglas-fir). We characterized past fire severity based on remnant criteria at each site in order to assess the effect of fire history on tree establishment patterns, and we also evaluated the influence of fire suppression and climate. We found that 62% of the sites experienced predominantly moderate-severity fire, 38% burned at high severity, and no sites burned exclusively at low severity. The proportion of total tree and sapling establishment was significantly different among equal time periods based on a chi-square test, with highest tree and sapling establishment during the pre-fire-suppression period (1835-1919). Superposed epoch analysis revealed that fires burned during years of extreme drought (95% CI). The major pulse of tree establishment in the upper montane zone occurred during a multidecadal period of extreme drought conditions in the Colorado Front Range (1850�1889), during which 53% of the fires from the 1750-1989 period burned. In the upper montane zone of the Colorado Front Range, historical evidence suggests that these forests are resilient to prolonged periods of severe drought and associated severe fires. # #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Gartner, M.H., T.T. Veblen, R.L. Sherriff, and T.L. Schoennagel # Published_Date_or_Year: 2012 # Published_Title: Proximity to grasslands influences fire frequency and sensitivity to climate variability in Pinus ponderosa forests of the Colorado Front Range # Journal_Name: International Journal of Wildland Fire # Volume: 21.0 # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1071/WF10103 # Publication_Place: # Publisher: # ISBN: # Online_Resource: # Other_Reference_Details: # Full_Citation: Gartner, M.H., T.T. Veblen, R.L. Sherriff, and T.L. Schoennagel. 2012. Proximity to grasslands influences fire frequency and sensitivity to climate variability in Pinus ponderosa forests of the Colorado Front Range. International Journal of Wildland Fire 21: 562-571. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF10103 # Abstract: # This study examines the influence of grasslands on fire frequency and occurrence in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)-dominated forests of the central and northern Colorado Front Range. Fire frequency based on tree-ring fire-scar data was compared between 34 fire history sites adjacent to grasslands and 34 fire history sites not adjacent to grasslands for the time period 1675�1920. Relationships were examined between fire occurrence and values of the Palmer Drought Severity Index and sea-surface temperatures from the NINO3 region of the tropical Pacific Ocean (positive values indicating El Ni�o-like conditions and negative values La Ni�a-like conditions). Ponderosa pine stands adjacent to grasslands experienced more frequent fire than stands not adjacent to grasslands (P<0.05) owing to proximity to prevalent fine fuels able to support relatively frequent surface fires. Fire activity adjacent to grasslands showed a lagged positive relationship with moist years (positive Palmer Drought Severity Index and positive NINO3) antecedent to fire events whereas fire occurrence at sites not adjacent to grasslands showed no relationship to antecedent moist years. This study illustrates how the presence of grasslands in a ponderosa pine landscape results in increased fire frequency (a bottom�up influence) and also increases the sensitivity of fire activity to interannual climate variability (a top�down influence). # #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Sherriff, R.L., R.V. Platt, T.T. Veblen, T.L. Schoennagel, and M.H. Gartner # Published_Date_or_Year: 2014 # Published_Title: Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range # Journal_Name: PLOS ONE # Volume: 9.0 # Edition: 0.0 # Issue: # Pages: 562-571 # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106971 # Publication_Place: # Publisher: # ISBN: # Online_Resource: # Other_Reference_Details: # Full_Citation: Sherriff, R.L., R.V. Platt, T.T. Veblen, T.L. Schoennagel, and M.H. Gartner. 2014. Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. PLOS ONE. 9(9): e106971. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106971 # Abstract: # Large recent fires in the western U.S. have contributed to a perception that fire exclusion has caused an unprecedented occurrence of uncharacteristically severe fires, particularly in lower elevation dry pine forests. In the absence of long-term fire severity records, it is unknown how short-term trends compare to fire severity prior to 20th century fire exclusion. This study compares historical (i.e. pre-1920) fire severity with observed modern fire severity and modeled potential fire behavior across 564,413 ha of montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. We used forest structure and tree-ring fire history to characterize fire severity at 232 sites and then modeled historical fire-severity across the entire study area using biophysical variables. Eighteen (7.8%) sites were characterized by low-severity fires and 214 (92.2%) by mixed-severity fires (i.e. including moderate- or high-severity fires). Difference in area of historical versus observed low-severity fire within nine recent (post-1999) large fire perimeters was greatest in lower montane forests. Only 16% of the study area recorded a shift from historical low severity to a higher potential for crown fire today. An historical fire regime of more frequent and low-severity fires at low elevations (<2260 m) supports a convergence of management goals of ecological restoration and fire hazard mitigation in those habitats. In contrast, at higher elevations mixed-severity fires were predominant historically and continue to be so today. Thinning treatments at higher elevations of the montane zone will not return the fire regime to an historic low-severity regime, and are of questionable effectiveness in preventing severe wildfires. Based on present-day fuels, predicted fire behavior under extreme fire weather continues to indicate a mixed-severity fire regime throughout most of the montane forest zone. Recent large wildfires in the Front Range are not fundamentally different from similar events that occurred historically under extreme weather conditions. ##-------------------- # Site Information # Site_Name: NAFSS # Location: North America # Northernmost_Latitude: 41.015836 # Southernmost_Latitude: 37.732956 # Easternmost_Longitude: -103.573545 # Westernmost_Longitude: -106.21129 # Elevation_m: #-------------------- # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: # First_Year: # Last_Year: # Time_Unit: # Core_Length_m: # Parameter_Keywords: # Notes: #-------------------- # Chronology Information: # Chronology: # #-------------------- # Variables # # PaST_Thesaurus_Download_Resource: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/paleo-search/skos/past-thesaurus.rdf # PaST_Thesaurus_Download_Description: Paleoenvironmental Standard Terms (PaST) Thesaurus terms, definitions, and relationships in SKOS format. # # Short_name what,material,error,units,seasonality,data_type,detail,method,data_format,additional_information # ## age_ce age, , ,year Common Era, ,FIRE HISTORY;TREE RING, , ,N, ## tree_events tree demographic and injury and fire event code, wood, , , ,FIRE HISTORY;TREE RING, , ,C,FHX2 data format; refer to IMPD documentation for description of codes ## sample_id sample identification,,,,,FIRE HISTORY|TREE RING,,,C,Tree ID ## tree_demog tree demographic and fire event code,wood,,,,FIRE HISTORY|TREE RING,,,C, # #-------------------- # Data: # To access data, use Data_Download_Resource links above.