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<br />Vegetative Recovery after Wildfire <br /> <br />~"e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />Page 7 of 9 <br /> <br /> <br />Recovery of these trees after a fire can <br />be difficult and slow. Both are adapted <br />to a cool and shady environment. <br />Seedlings may become established in <br />small bums of 1/10 acre or less. Larger Wildflower regeneration after fire. <br />areas may not reestablish because <br />seedlings are intolerant of the intense sunlight at this elevation. New seedlings may <br />establish at the perimeter of a larger fire. The seedlings require the shade the larger trees <br />provide. <br /> <br />Other Conifers <br /> <br /> <br />Limber pine and bristlecone pine are <br />present in scattered stands throughout <br />the state. Fire is relatively uncommon <br />in the zone where these pines occur. <br />Limber pine bark is thin but mature <br />trees are more fire resistant. The large <br />seed of limber pine is attractive to <br />Clark's nutcracker, which can be <br />instrumental in caching and dispersing <br />limber pine seed, <br />White fir is common in southern <br />Colorado at mid-elevations. Like <br />subalpine fir it has a thin bark and is <br />susceptible to top-kill in the sapling and <br />pole stages. White firs have shallow root systems, low growing branches and foliage <br />making it susceptible to burning. <br /> <br />Tbis stand of gambel oak respronted quickly after a <br />fire. <br /> <br /> <br />Shrubs, Grasses and Forbs <br /> <br />Unlike conifers, many shrubs, forbs and <br />grasses readily sprout from <br />underground root structures after a fire. <br />These root structures vary in size, shape <br />and depth in the soil profile. Fire <br />severity directly impacts these <br />structures and influences which species <br />regenerate. Slow moving fires destroy <br />the duff layer and heat the soil to lethal <br /> <br />Figure 2. Various plant parts tbat regenerate new temperatures. Sometimes shallow root <br />sboots and tbeir location in tbe soils (Table adapted structures are destroyed favoring those <br />from Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Effects of Fire on species with deeper roots. However, <br />Flora, GTR RMRS.GTR-42-volume 2). when a forest canopy is so dense that <br /> <br />there is little or no understory, it may take considerably longer for grasses and shrubs to <br />come in after a wildfire. <br /> <br />Donnant buds can be located in the roots. These become the new growing points for <br />reestablishment after a fire. ' <br /> <br />Common Colorado shrubs, such as antelope bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, and mountain <br />hllp://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/NATRES/06307.html <br /> <br />8/13/02 <br />