Influence of Fire on the Dynamics of Dead Woody Material in Forests of California and Southwestern Oregon

The frequent occurrence of fire in most forested areas of California and southwestern Oregon before this century has been well established. Likewise, the importance of dead woody material to various wildlife species as snags and downed logs has been well documented. It is unlikely that much large woody material survived fire long enough to decompose fully in fire regimes that preceded the fire-suppression era. Observations of fire effects on dead woody material, as well as some recent limited data, indicate that fire often consumes most material that is in advanced stages of decay. However, though many appear to be consumed as well, hard snags and logs may, at least in part, survive low severity fires. Fires also help to create snags and, ultimately, downed logs. The frequent low-moderate-severity fires that characterized much of the forested landscapes of California and southwest Oregon burned with varying severity related to topography and weather conditions. The probable result was a landscape with many of the snags and logs clustered both in time and in space and very sparsely distributed in the intervening time and space.