"Le Messurier" wrote in message
om...
To Mike Hagen: I'm not aware that "much of the present day Ponderosa
forest occupies what used to be grassland in the late 1800's. Stopping
fire and grazing changed that."
snip

You are right if you are talking about large treeless expanses of grassland. However, fire produced
many moderately good sized openings (but generally smaller than would be used to classify the area as
a grassland) within the Ponderosa forest. The fires were not universally low intensity. When they
would hit an area of heavy fuels, they could become intense. Such areas didn't always reseed back to
PP immediately - often spending a significant period of time in grass, brush or Aspen before PP
recolonized. During the period that PP was recolonizing (especially during the period when the
reprod was pole sized) the fuels would often be heavy enough to repeat the cycle if a fire passed
thru.


--
Bob Weinberger - La Grande, OR

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