Comparison of understory burning and mechanical site preparation to regenerate lodgepole pine stands killed by MPB

While detection and control efforts are key to mitigating MPB, it’s also important to improve how land managers respond after an attack.

Controlled burns may be an inexpensive way to regenerate and decrease flammability in lodgepole pine stands killed by mountain pine beetle (MPB).

In stands with aspen or high soil nutrients, it may be possible that blade scarification may be more effective way to renew these sites as there likely will be less aspen suckering and less vegetation re-growth. Blading may also produce a betteseedbed, if there is insufficient duff removal by the fire. 

We will be able to assess the damage to cones on the ground at time of burning and determine if regeneration must depend upon seed from the canopy. This has implications for the effectiveness of burning the MPB stands later into the grey stage.

We will evaluate if the moisture content of fine fuel is significantly altered by MPB kill which may influence future landscape level fire behavior. We will be able to determine if burning is more effective immediately after kill from MPB or the burning should be delayed by up to four years.

We will determine if there are major differences in seedling response in lower elevation and rich sites compared to higher elevation and poor site conditions. 

Fire and forest managers will gain first hand experience by conducting the burns and observing  the outcomes.

Objectives

  1. Determine the efficacy of burning to regenerate lodgepole pine stands killed by MPB, especially in terms of depth of burn and fuel loading. Fire behavior and pine regeneration will be determined for two ecosites, three levels of stand mortality and at two stages of mortality.
  2. Determine if burning is superior to mechanical site preparation as a tool for renewal of these stands.  Comparison will be made in terms of cone density, pine seedling density, nutrient mineralization and vegetation competition.
  3. Collect fire behavior baseline data to verify or adjust the Fire Weather Index System with fuel moisture content in lodgepole stands killed by MPB.
January 1 2011
Project Begins

Project kicks off, led by Denis Quintilio

Comparison of understory burning and mechanical site preparation to regenerate lodgepole pine stands killed by mountain pine beetle
Summaries and Communications | Presentation Slides
Presentation comparing understory burning and mechanical site preparation to regenerate lodgepole pine stands killed by mountain pine beetle.
Comparison of understory burning and mechanical site preparation to regenerate lodgepole pine stands killed by mountain pine beetle
Summaries and Communications | Presentation Slides
Presentation on regeneration of lodgepole pine stands after fire, logging and mountain pine beetle attacks.
Ecological impacts of the mountain pine beetle on pine forests of the southern Foothills, Alberta: a case study in Waterton Lakes National Park
Scientific Publications | Reports
Report on the effects of MPB outbreaks on mortality and regeneration dynamics, forest structure and composition, overstorey and understorey fuel.
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Soung Ryu
Vic Lieffers
Vic Lieffers
Department Chair & Professor, Department of Renewable Resources
Dr. Keith McClain
Dr. Keith McClain
Program Lead