Excerpt from Guidelines for Estimating the Survival of Fire-Damaged Trees in California

When virgin timber was plentiful in the West, stands swept by fire were considered lost. As old-growth was harvested and timber values increased, salvage logging after fires gradually became a com mon practice, and establishment of a new forest by planting or seeding burns received increasing attention. Today, rehabilitation of a burn ranks with or above salvage in importance.

In rehabilitating burns, foresters recognize the need to take advantage of the natural capacity of trees to recover from fire damage. Where few trees escape heavy damage and planting is scheduled, clear cutting in salvage operations is often advisable. Clear cutting permits more efficient planting and more thorough site preparation. In large burns planting cannot be scheduled immediately, and leaving trees that would survive offers a chance f or natural regeneration and gains in time, quality, and seed source. To capitalize on this chance, foresters need to understand a tree's survival potentials after fire and how to judge them.

In 1939, following early work by forest entomologists (miller and Patterson, 1927; Miller, 1929; Salman, 1934; Miller and Keen, the Office of Forest Pathology began a study in California of the sur vival of fire-damaged ponderosa and Jeffrey pines. The study was origi nally confined to these two pine species because of their high intrinsic value and the prevalence of misconceptions regarding their survival chances following fire. Later it was extended to other conifers.

Sample damaged trees were selected on fresh burns and their condition recorded. Reexaminations were made annually until mortality had returned to normal, usually within 3 to 4 years. Observations on 30 burns located on 12 national forests in California and in Yosemite National Park provide the basis for generalizations presented here as guidelines. Part of what follows is in the nature of background to aid in the understanding of the criteria for survival.

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