Snow Cover Critical for Revegetation Following Forest Fires

With wildfires devastating mountain ecosystems across the western United States, their successful forest revegetation recovery hinges on, among other factors, an adequate lasting snowpack, according to research by the University of Nevada, Reno and Oregon State University.

"Our study illustrated that summer precipitation, snow cover and elevation were all important drivers of revegetation success," said Anne Nolin, a hydrologist and geography professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and formerly at Oregon State University. "In particular, we found that snow cover was a critical explanatory variable for revegetation in the Oregon and Washington Cascades. This could help inform revegetation management practices following severe wildfires."

Climate change has already increased the fraction of winter precipitation that falls as rain rather than snow, reduced the spring snow water equivalent – a metric for how much water snow contains – and caused snowmelt to begin earlier in the spring than it used to, Nolin explained. Pacific Northwest snowpacks have seen the greatest declines of any seasonal snow region in the West.rent parts of the landscape,” explains Deb Caraco, senior watershed engineer with the Center for Watershed Protection. “Quantifying the impacts of urban trees affect different parts of the water balance, such as the evapotranspiration component discussed in Mitch and Sarah’s paper, gives us a better understanding of the benefits of urban trees, and knowing where and how to plant and preserve them to achieve the greatest benefit.”

Read more at: University of Nevada, Reno

Revegetation in the Oregon Cascades after the 90,000-acre B&B Complex Fires that burned in August and September of 2003 around Three-Fingered Jack peak. (Photo Credit: University of Nevada, Reno)