FireWorks Encyclopedia - FRAMES€¦ · Fireworks Encyclopedia Species Page Number American black...

FireWorks Encyclopedia

Featuring Species

from the Sierra Nevada

Fireworks Encyclopedia Species Page Number American black bear 1 Annosum Root Rot 3 Baker Cypress 5 bark beetles 7 Black fire beetle 9 Black -backed woodpecker 11 Bracken fern 13 California black oak 15 California red fir 17 California spotted owl 19 Canon live oak 21 Cheatgrass 23 Deer brush 25 Deer mouse 27 Coast Douglas-fir 29 Dusky-footed woodrat 31 Fisher 33 Fox sparrow 35 Incense-cedar 37 Jeffrey pine 39 Mariposa lily 41 Mountain lion 43 Mountain whitethorn 45 Mountain yellow-legged frogs 47 Mule deer 49 Northern goshawk 51 Ponderosa pine 53 Quaking aspen 55 Ross's sedge 57 Sierra gooseberry 59 Sierra lodgepole pine 61 Sticky whiteleaf manzanita 63 Sugar pine 65 Wavyleaf soap plant 67 Webber's milkvetch 69 Western gray squirrel 71 Western wood-pewee 73 White fir 75 White pine blister rust 77 Yellow starthistle 79

I am an American black bear. My brother and I

were born in our mother's winter den. I was

about as big as a rat when I was born. I was

blind too, and I had no teeth. My brother and I

grew bigger and stronger every day. When

spring came, we followed our mother around

and she taught us how to find food. When I

turned two years old, my brother and I le our

mother. When I was four years old, I started my

own family. I have cubs every two or three

years. Most of my cubs are twins or triplets.

I live in forests, woodlands, and shrublands.

These are places that provide plenty of food. I

wake up every day before sunrise to start

ea ng. I usually take a nap in the middle of the

day. Then I eat un l dark. I use my sharp claws to dig up ants and grubs. In spring, I look for

juicy new plants. In summer, I feast on berries. In fall, I eat fruit and acorns. In winter, my food

is hidden under the snow, so I need to grow really fat before winter. Then I can sleep for

months without ea ng or drinking. I will lose weight, but I will wake up strong and ready for

spring.

I can run away from almost any fire. I will just

go somewhere else to eat. I will come back

a er the fire to feed on beetles and other

insects. The next year, I will feed on tender

new wildflowers growing in burned places. A

few years later, I will find the burned place

loaded with juicy berries. I love places where

patches of trees are mixed up with burned

patches. I can feed in the openings and rest in

the trees. I have everything I need!

(Ursus americanus)

Image by Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service.

Bear cubs. Image by Joy Viola, Northeastern University.

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References: Ulev, Elena. 2007. Ursus americanus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/uram/all.html [2015, July 31].

Kapler Smith, Jane. 2016. American black bear. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

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I am a fungus. I live on tree trunks and tree roots. I live INSIDE them, too. I do not get my

energy directly from the sun, like plants do. Instead, I grow into the roots and trunks of trees

and absorb my nutrients from their cells.

People call these trees my hosts. That makes

it sound like I am their guest for dinner, but

really THEY are MY dinner! Most of my host

trees are conifers. I live in forests throughout

the United States.

Because I live mostly underground or inside

my host tree, you probably will not no ce me

unless I have grown a conk at the base of the

tree. Conks are light‐colored and shaped sort

of like seashells. They produce my spores,

which can fly far away on the wind and start a

new fungus.

My arrival in a tree begins a wonderful process: ROT. This is an important job. If no one did it,

the forest would fill up with dead wood! Rot breaks wood down into ny pieces that keep the

soil healthy and provide nutri on for growing plants.

Scien sts are not sure how fire affects me.

Fire can kill the trees where I live, but it

probably cannot make me go away. I can

live for a long me in dead tree roots deep

underground, where I am protected from

fire’s heat.

Annosum Root Rot (Heterobasidion annosum)

Annosum root rot made these roots look stringy. Image courtesy of USDA Forest Service, Northern and Intermountain Region.

Conks from Annosum root rot. Image courtesy of Robert L. James, USDA Forest Service.

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References: Lygis, V.; Vasiliauskaite, I.; Stenlid, J.; Vasai s, R. 2010. Impact of forest fire on occurrence of Heterobasidion annosum s.s. root rot and other wood‐inhabi ng fungi in roots of Pinus mugo. Forestry. 83(1): 83‐92.

Maser, Chris; Sedell, James R. 1994. From the forest to the sea: The ecology of wood in streams, rivers, estuaries, and oceans. Delray Beach, FL: St. Lucie Press. 200 p.

Rippy, Raini C.; Stewart, Jane E.; Zambino, Paul J.; Klopfenstein, Ned B.; Tirocke, Joanne M.; Kim, Mee‐Sook; Thies, Walter G. 2005. Root diseases in coniferous forests of the Inland West: poten al implica ons of fuels treatments. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS‐GTR‐141. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 32 p. [FEIS id: 60773] [Call: F]

Worrall, James J. 2015. Root diseases. In: Forest and shade tree pathology [Online]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Protec on; St. Paul, MN: American Phytopathological Society, Forest Pathology Commi ee (Producers). Available: h p://www.forestpathology.org/root.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. Annosum root rot. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department

of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

4

I am a very rare evergreen tree. I live in only about a dozen places, and all of them are in

northern California or southern Oregon. I grow in dry places in the mountains.

Baker cypress (Hesperocyparis bakeri )

My sweet‐smelling leaves are ny and green. They are

scaly like lizard skin, and they hang down from my

branches. I like to grow in sunny places. My seedlings

need sunshine to get a healthy start. Even adult trees,

like me, need lots of sunlight. If I grow in the shade, I

grow slowly and find it hard to make seeds.

I store my seeds in li le round cones stuck to my

trunk and branches. My cones are sero nous. This

means that a hard, waxy coa ng seals them ght. The

seeds cannot get out unless a fire heats them up and

melts the waxy coa ng. That is I why I love fires.

I especially like fires that burn into the treetops, like

crown fires. They kill grown‐up trees like me,

because we grow in crowded patches and our bark is

thin. But these fires also open our cones. Then

thousands of seeds fall out into perfect habitat: bare

soil with lots of sunlight. A new patch of Baker cypresses is formed!

A healthy Baker cypress growing in rocky soils, with few other trees nearby.

Image by Kyle Merriam, USDA Forest Service.

Baker cypress bark. Image by Kyle Merriam, USDA Forest Service.

Sealed cones of Baker cypress. Image by Joey Malone.

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References: Centers for Disease Control and Preven on. 2009. Clinical growth charts. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Preven on, Na onal Center for Health Sta s cs (Producer). Available: h p://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm. [2016, July 18].

Esser, Lora. 1994. Hesperocyparis bakeri. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Depart‐ment of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.feis‐crs.org/feis/ [2016, July 18].

Frame, Chris ne. 2011. Saving the cypress: Restor‐ing fire to rare, at‐risk species. Boise, ID: Fire Science Brief. 126. 6 p.

Gamel, Jay. 2009. Milo Baker – Our local hor cultur‐al legend, [Online]. Kenwood, CA: Kenwood Press (Producer). Available: www.kenwoodpress.com/pub/a/3591 [2016, July 18].

Merriam, Kyle; Rentz, Erin. [No date.] Restoring fire to endemic cypress popula ons in northern Califor‐nia, [Online]. Final report to Joint Fire Science Pro‐gram, Project ID number: 06‐2‐1‐17. 59 p. Available: h ps://www.firescience.gov/projects/06‐2‐1‐17/project/06‐2‐1‐17_06‐2‐1‐17_final_report.pdf. [2016, July 18].

Rentz. Erin; Merriam, Kyle. 2011. Restora on and management of Baker Cypress in northern California and southern Oregon. In: Willoughby, J. W.; Orr, B. K.; Schierenbeck, K. A.; Jensen, N.; eds. Proceedings of the CNPS Conserva on Conference: Strategies and Solu ons; 2009 January 17‐19. Sacramento, CA: California Na ve Plant Society: 282‐289.

August 3, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Baker cypress. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

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Bark beetles live in forests all over the world. I am just

one kind of bark beetle, the mountain pine beetle. I

am about as big as a grain of rice. I can live in

lodgepole pines, ponderosa pines, sugar pines, limber

pines, and whitebark pines. I especially like forests that

have lots of trees growing close together.

In the middle of summer last year, my mother found a

tree in the middle of a dense forest. She decided this

was the perfect place to mate and lay her eggs. She

bored a hole in the tree’s bark and crawled into the

cambium underneath. She mated with my father. Then

she began ea ng the cambium, making a tunnel toward

for the top of the tree. As she ate and climbed, she laid her eggs. I was in one of them! Two

weeks later, we all hatched out. We were short, thick, so larvae. We ate and made sideways

tunnels through the cambium. Together, we created a gallery shaped like a tall, wide feather.

If a tree is filled with galleries, it cannot get enough moisture

and nutri on to survive and it will die. A er nearly a year of

ea ng and growing, I am now a brown, shiny beetle about as

big as a grain of rice. I am ready to find a mate and a perfect

tree for laying my own eggs.

Where there are conifers, there are always a few of us

around. When we live in a forest with lots of trees close

together, we can raise millions of young in a short me. Then

we can a ack thousands of trees all at once. We call this a

feast! But if we kill most of the trees in the forest, you might

call it an epidemic.

We love every kind of fire. Surface fires usually injure some

of the trees in the forest. That makes it easier for us to get

in and lay our eggs. Crown fires may kill us, but they usually

start a new forest where we can feed when the trees

grow up.

(Mul ple species in western North America)

Mountain pine beetle. Image by Ron Long, Simon Fraser University.

Mountain pine beetle gallery. Image courtesy of Ogden Archive,

USDA Forest Service.

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References: U.C. IPM. 2016. Bark beetles, [Online]. Davis, CA: University of California, Integrated Pest Management Program (Producer). Available: h p://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7421.html [2016, July 18].

U.S.D.A. Forest Service. 2016. Bark beetles: A natural and drama c forest disturbance, [Online]. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/projects/bark‐beetles‐natural‐and‐drama c‐forest‐disturbance [2016, July 18].

Abrahamson, Ilana. Bark beetles. 2016. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

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Many animals run away from forest fires,

but I head straight for them. That is

because I love fires, especially crown fires! I

am a plain black beetle about as big as a

bean. My scien fic name, Melanophila,

means “black‐loving.” That is because I lay

my eggs in blackened trees burned by forest

fires.

I have 2 body parts that help me find fires. I

have special antennae. They can sense a ny

amount of smoke in the air. I also have heat

sensors on my sides. They help me find forest fires more than 10 kilometers away!

I rush to a forest fire as soon as I sense smoke and heat. I mate right away and then lay my

eggs under the burned tree bark. The trees may s ll be hot and smoldering when I crawl in!

My eggs rest through the winter. Then the eggs hatch into larvae, and they begin to grow.

They eat the phloem under the bark of trees that are dead or dying. Most of the larvae grow

into adult beetles up in one year, but some

take longer.

We provide tons of food for other animals.

Woodpeckers arrive in burned forests right

a er we get there. Black‐backed woodpeckers

are especially fond of us. They pry the bark

away from burned trees. There they find

millions of eggs and larvae. That is enough

food for breakfast, lunch, and supper! A er a

few years, our food supply gets smaller and

we go off to newer burns. The woodpeckers

soon follow.

(Melanophila acuminata)

Black fire beetle. Courtesy of AG Prof. Schmitz, h p://idw‐online.de/pages/de/image73525

Black fire beetles may use many kinds of burned conifer trees to lay their eggs.

Image by Glacier Na onal Park Fire Management.

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References: Evans, W. G. 2010. Reproduc ve role of infrared radia on sensors of Melanophila acuminata (Coleoptera: Bupres dae) at forest fires. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 103(6): 823‐826.

Milius, S. 2001. Why fly into a forest fire? It's one way to meet a lot of great bugs. Science News. 159: 140‐141.

Schmitz, H.; Bleckmann, H. 1998. The photomechanic infrared receptor for the detec on of forest fires in the beetle Melanophila acuminata (Coleoptera: Bupres dae). Journal of Compara ve Physiology A. 182(5): 647‐657.

Wikars, Lars‐Ove. 1997. Effects of forest fires and the ecology of fire‐adapted insects. Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universita s Upsaliensis. 35 p. Disserta on.

Innes, Robin. 2016. Black fire beetle. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

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A mountainside with hundreds of blackened tree

skeletons reaching to the sky is a dream come true for

a black‐backed woodpecker like me. I like all kinds of

burned areas, but a recent crown fire in a conifer

forest is the perfect place for me. The burned trees

are full beetle larvae, my favorite food. Where did

they come from?

Adult beetles find burned places because they can

sense a fire’s heat and smoke. They mate and lay their

eggs under the charred tree bark. When the eggs

hatch, the larvae have a limitless supply of dead wood

to eat. And they are a limitless supply of food for me

to eat! I can pull the bark off the tree and spear the

larvae with my barbed tongue. A burned forest can

will provide me with all the food I need for the next

few years. My black back matches the trees where I feed, so I am safe from predators while

I hunt.

I will find a mate here. The two of us will find a tree that is ro en inside. We will chisel

through the hard outer wood with our sharp

bills. Then we will pull out the ro en, inner

wood. I will lay about 3 white eggs in our

nest hole. Our young will hatch a er about

12 days. In less than a month, they will be

able to fly. Then they will follow us around

to learn how to find their own food.

A er a few years, there will be less food

here for the beetles and other insects.

They will move away to newer burns, and

we will follow them. Burned forests are our

favorite habitat.

(Picoides arc cus)

Male black‐backed woodpecker. Image courtesy of Ron Wolf.

Female black‐backed woodpecker and nestling at a nest in a burned tree in California.

Image courtesy of Mar n Meyers.

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References: Stone, Katharine R. 2011. Picoides arc cus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/piar/all.html [2015, August 11].

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. Black‐backed woodpecker. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

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Ferns have been around a very long me. We were growing on the earth before the me of the dinosaurs. A er those ancient ferns died, they were squeezed and pressed un l they became coal and oil. You probably burn some of my ancestors in your car!

Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

Some kinds of ferns grow much taller than people, but I my fronds can grow only 1 to 2 meters tall. I am o en only as high as your knees. I live in forests and meadows throughout the United States.

Ferns are different from trees and flowering plants. Most plants create new plants by making seeds. I create new plants by making spores. Spores contain some of the ingredients to make a new plant, but they do not contain a baby plant, like seeds do. My spores are ny, so they can fly hundreds of miles on the wind.

I can also make new plants by sprou ng from my rhizomes. My rhizomes are thick and tough, and they grow deep in the soil. New fronds sprout from them. Then these fronds grow their own rhizomes. All of these rhizomes weave over and under and around each other. They make it hard for other plants to grow.

I like fire. Fire kills my fronds, but it does not kill my deep rhizomes. Soon a er fire, I sprout new fronds. They grow fast because they have lots of sunshine. The wind carries my spores into burned areas. These will grow well because they like the way fires change the soil. Fire and I are great friends!

Bracken fern plant. Image by Robert Vidéki, Doronicum K .

Bracken ferns growing in a burned area, Rocky Bayou State Park, Niceville, Florida. Image by Rebekah D. Wallace,

University of Georgia.

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References: Crane, M. F. 1990. Pteridium aquilinum. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/fern/pteaqu/all.html [2016, July 18].

Emms, Simon K. 2002. Evolu on of plants, [Online]. In: Encyclopedia.com. The Gale Group, Inc. Available: h p://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Evolu on_of_Plants.aspx [2016, July 18].

Parresol, Lisa. [no date]. A natural history of bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn. Asheville, NC: University of North Carolina at Asheville. 24 p. Thesis.

Raven, Peter H. 1970. Biology of plants. New York: Worth Publishers, Inc. 706 p.

August 1, 2016

Kapler Smith, Jane. 2016. Bracken fern. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


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If you see a big oak tree in the mountains of southern Oregon or California, it is probably a

California black oak like me. We live in the mountains among the pines and fir trees. We like

open, sunny places with bare soil. We do not like it when our neighbor trees get tall. They

make too much shade for us. Then we grow slowly. We might even get a fungus that could

kill us.

I am a deciduous tree. That means I drop my leaves each winter. I can grow to be more than

30 meters tall, and my trunk can be 8 meters around. Could you reach around me? As I get

old, my bark gets rough and thick, so it can

protect me from the heat of forest fires. I am

likely to live at least 200 years, and I could

even get to be 500. That is way older than

anyone you know!

I can sprout new trees from my root crown.

That is the place where my roots meet my

stem. I can also reproduce from acorns. Some

years I produce thousands of them. Squirrels

and jays and other animals bury my acorns

and come back later to eat them. They leave

some acorns behind. These can grow into new

trees.

Now that I am grown, my thick bark helps me

to survive surface fires. My seedlings and

saplings have thin bark, so fires usually kill

them. But a er the fire, I will sprout new trees

from my root crown. I like to have surface fires

o en because they kill some of the big, shady

trees that live near me. I do not manage as

well if fires are hot enough to burn my crown

and my root crown. These severe fires might

kill me.

California black oak (Quercus kelloggii)

California black oak sprou ng a er a fire. Image by Michael Yager.

Miwoks burned Yosemite Valley regularly to keep the California black oaks healthy.

Image by Tom Reyes.

15

References: Fryer, Janet L. 2007. Quercus kelloggii. In: Fire

Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S.

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky

Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences

Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://

www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/quekel/

all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. California black oak. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


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I am a California red fir. My bark is brown on the outside and dark red on the inside. That is

why people call me a “red” fir. I live high in the mountains of California, Oregon, and Nevada.

Winters are cold, and snow may stay on the ground in my habitat un l July.

I reproduce by seeds. I grow them in long cones that

stand straight up on my top branches. The cones are very

s cky in the early summer. They dry out by fall. Then

they fall apart, and my seeds float to the ground. They

will start growing in spring. They will grow best if they

have some shade and li er covering the ground.

When I was young, I grew very slowly. When I was 25

years old, I was not even as tall as you are! When I got

older, some of my neighbor trees died and fell over. I got

a lot more sunlight, and then I could grow really fast.

Now I am almost 60 meters tall. My trunk is so thick that

it would take four or five children to reach around me.

I do not like forest fires very much. When I was young,

my bark was thin. I am lucky that no fires visited me

then, because they would surely have killed me. Now

that I am old, my bark is thick enough to protect me

from the heat of surface fires. But many of my

branches hang low to the ground, so a surface

fire could climb up into my crown. Crown fires

and fires that torch my crown would kill me.

They would make sunny openings on the

ground, where lots of berry bushes could grow.

Fir seedlings would probably start to grow too.

Eventually, there would be more big red firs just

like me, but it would take a long me.

California red fir (Abies magnifica)

California red fir cones grow upright on the uppermost branches. Image courtesy of Charles Webber © California Academy of Sciences.

California red fir bark on mature trees is thick and able to resist fire. Image courtesy of Jean Pawek.

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References: Cope, Amy B. 1993. Abies magnifica. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/abimag/all.html [2016, July 18].

Laacke, Robert J. 1990. Abies magnifica A. Murr. California red fir. In: Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., technical coordinators. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 71‐79.

Meyer, Marc D. 2013. Natural range of varia on of red fir forests in the bioregional assessment area. Pacific Southwest Region. 82 p.

August 1, 2016

Innes, Robin. 2016. California red fir. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


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I am a light brown owl with white spots and stripes covering my body. My eyes are dark

brown. My baby owlets are pure white. I live in the Sierra Nevada of California. Most of my

rela ves live in California too. They either live in the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Mountains,

or the mountains near the coast.

My favorite habitat is forests full of old trees. I like cool,

shady forests, but I like variety too. I like a mixture of big

trees, li le trees, snags, and fallen logs. I roost and nest in

big trees. I hunt near fallen logs, because that is where

many of my prey animals live. I also like to have some open

patches, where it is easy to hunt.

I raised my first family when I was 2 years old. I will lay eggs

only in the years when I can find enough food for my

young. I will defend my nest and my young fiercely. I will

a ack you or any other animal that gets too close.

I am nocturnal. That means that I sleep during the day and

hunt at night. Two of my favorite foods are woodrats and

flying squirrels. I eat other small mammals, birds, and

insects too.

California spo ed owls can easily fly away from

fires without ge ng burned. But we need forests

with a lot of large, old trees, so we do not like

big fires or crown fires or fires that torch our

crowns. We do not mind surface fires as long as

they occur a er our owlets are able to fly away

and escape. Surface fires might even help

protect our big trees from crown fires.

(Strix occidentalis occidentalis)

Adult California spo ed owl. © 2012 by Kameron Perensovich.

California spo ed owl adult with owlet, California Spo ed Owls.

Image courtesy of France Kehas‐Dewaghe. 19

References: Gu errez, R. J.; Franklin, A. B.; LaHaye, W. S. 1995. Spo ed owl (Strix occidentalis). In: Poole, A.; Gill, F., eds. Birds of North America. No. 179. Philadelphia, PA: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union: 28 p.

Meyer, Rachelle. 2007. Strix occidentalis. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ animals/bird/stoc/all.html [2015, July 23].

Roberts, Susan L.; van Wagtendonk, Jan W.; Miles, A. K.; Kelt, Douglas A. 2011. Effects of fire on spo ed owl site occupancy in a late‐successional forest. Biological Conserva on. 144: 610‐619.

Verner, Jared; Gu errez, R. J.; Gould, Gordon I., Jr. 1992. The California spo ed owl: General biology and ecological rela ons. In: Verner, Jared; McKelvey, Kevin S.; Noon, Barry R.; Gu errez, R. J.; Gould, Gordon I., Jr.; Beck, Thomas W., tech. coords. The California spo ed owl: a technical assessment of its current status. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW‐GTR‐133. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Sta on: 55‐77.

Murphy, Shannon. 2016. California spo ed owl. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 3, 2016

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I live in forests, woodlands, and chaparral from Oregon to Mexico. I am most common in the

Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada of California. I can live in dry or moist places. I can live in

sunny or shady places, but my seedlings like shade the best.

In moist canyons, I may grow to be 30 meters

tall. On dry hillsides, I may stay a short,

shrubby plant. I am evergreen. That means I

keep my leathery, shiny leaves year‐round. My

bark is flaky and kind of thin, even when I am

full‐grown.

I grow from acorns. I produce thousands of

acorns in a good year, but I do not have

enough energy to do that every year. Some

animals bury my acorns in the ground so they

can eat them later. Some of the buried acorns

grow into new trees.

Canyon live oaks have very thin bark, so

surface fires o en kill the young trees and

top‐kill adult trees. We are super sprouters

though. If my root crown survives, I can

sprout soon a er fire. Don’t think a root

crown actually wears a jeweled crown! It is

just the place where my roots meet my stem.

Because my sprouts are connected to my old,

deep roots, they can get water and nutrients

easily and grow very fast a er fire.

Fires will kill me if my flaky bark catches fire

and the flames reach into my crown, torching

it. Luckily, I can grow new trees from the

acorns that fall from surviving trees.

Canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis)

A canyon oak woodland. Image by Dan Simpson.

Acorns of canyon live oak. Image by Chris Wemmer.

21

References: Tollefson, Jennifer E. 2008. Quercus chrysolepis. In:

Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S.




www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ Available: h p://

www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/quechr/


August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Canyon live oak. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


22

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)

People call me an invasive grass because I can invade new

habitat. A er I move in, I can ruin the habitat for na ve

plants and animals. I have invaded many grasslands,

shrublands, and ponderosa pine forests in the western

United States.

I came originally from southern Europe, northern Africa,

and southwestern Asia, but now you can find me almost

all over the world. I can survive in areas with very li le

water, but I grow best where early spring rain is plen ful.

I am an annual. This means that I start from a seed, grow,

produce my own seeds, and die all within one year. A

single cheatgrass plant can make hundreds of seeds, and

our seeds can survive in the soil or li er for 2 or 3 years.

We begin to grow in late fall or early spring. This is before

most of the na ve plants begin to grow. Because we get an

early start, we may use most of the water in the soil before

our neighbors have a chance to get it.

I am usually dead and dried out before fires burn through my home, so I do not worry about

fires killing me. I can handle any kind of fire. Fires can kill my seeds, but I make so many of

them that some survive and quickly grow into new plants a er fire.

Before I arrived, there were open spaces between the plants that lived here. It was hard for

fires to spread from plant to plant. But I grow in those open spaces. When I die, I leave a lot of

fluffy, dry fuel in those spaces. I make fires spread more easily. Na ve plants find it hard to

recover, but the fires make it even easier for me to grow the next year.

Scien sts are trying to find ways to keep us from spreading. They kill us off. They plant na ve

plants to crowd us out. They recently found a fungus that kills some of us. Its name makes it

sound dangerous. It is called “the black fingers of death.”

Cheatgrass plant with flowers. Image by John M. Randall, The Nature Conservancy.

23

References: Stubbendieck, James; Coffin, Mitchell J.; Landholt, L. M. 2003. Weeds of the Great Plains. 3rd ed. Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry; University of Nebraska. 605 p.

Wells, Gail. 2012. Chea ng cheatgrass: new research to combat a wily invasive weed. Fire Science Digest. No. 13. Boise, ID: Na onal Interagency Fire Center, Joint Fire Science Program. 11 p.

Zouhar, Kris. 2003. Bromus tectorum. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/brotec/all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Murphy, Shannon. 2016. Cheatgrass. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


24

Deer brush (Ceanothus integerrimus)

My name tells you who likes to eat me. Deer

munch my leaves and twigs as if they were ea ng

candy. I am a shrub with bright green leaves. I

grow in chaparral and woodlands. I also grow in

young conifer forests. You can find me in

Washington, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

I drop most of my leaves in the fall. In the spring, I

grow bright new leaves. Then I grow white, pink,

or purple flowers. Bees and bu erflies pollinate

my flowers. My fruits ripen in summer. Then they

dry out and twist open, and my seeds fly out.

My seeds leave me in a hurry, but they are not in a

hurry to germinate. That is because they have very

hard seed coats. The coats have to crack open before the new plants can grow. What cracks

them open? Either being crushed by something heavy or

being heated by a fire.

My seedlings love to grow on open, sunny places. They

especially like places that recently burned. Even adult

plants like the sun. We do not grow well in shady places.

When trees make too much shade, we gradually die out.

I can sprout from my root crown a er fire, but I am not

very good at it. Many of my neighbor shrubs are be er

sprouters. If you walk over a burned area where I live, you

will probably find a few wimpy sprouts. But you will find

thousands of my seedlings, even if the fire was very

severe. These seedlings are star ng the next genera on of

deer brush.

Deer brush in flower. Can you spot the ponderosa pine seedlings nearby?

Image © 2015 Barry Breckling.

Deer brush. Image by Ilana Abrahamson.

25

References: Howard, Janet L. 1997. Ceanothus integerrimus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/ceaint/all.html [2016, July 18]

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Deer brush. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


26

I am very small, but I can run and jump like a

deer. Maybe that is how I got my name. Or

maybe it is because I have great big ears, just

like mule deer have. I can live in hot deserts and

on cool mountainsides. I can live in meadows

and forests, in wild country and in farm

buildings.

I was born in my mother’s burrow underground.

My brothers and sisters and I were blind, and we

did not have any fur. Mom had to keep us warm

and feed us. But we grew up fast. When I was

about 2 months old, I moved out and started my own family. I had 3 mouse pups in my first

li er. I had 9 pups in another li er. That was a huge, sudden family! I had to take care of them

and also search for food to feed all 10 of us.

I usually go looking for food at night. I am not picky. I like seeds, insects, caterpillars, and

spiders. I also eat nuts and berries and leaves. I try to eat a lot and get fat before winter. I also

like to store seeds in hollow logs and other hiding places. I can dine at these caches in the

winter, when it is hard to find food under the snow.

During the day, I rest in my underground nest. I have to stay hidden because so many animals

want to eat me.

If a fire burns through my habitat, I run and hide

in my underground burrow. The soil will protect

me from the heat of almost any fire. Right a er

the fire, I can find lots of dead insects to eat.

Within a few weeks, I will find a great supply of

sprou ng plants and new insects to eat. The first

year a er fire, there are usually more deer mice in

a burned place than there were before the fire.

(Peromyscus maniculatus)

Deer mouse. Image by David Cappaert, Michigan State University.

Deer mouse. Image by David Cappaert, Michigan State University.

27

References: Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). In: Northern State University, [Online]. Pierre, SD: South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Division of Wildlife (Producer). Available: h p://www3.northern.edu/natsource/MAMMALS/Deermi2.htm [2012, May 29].

Sullivan, Janet. 1995. Peromyscus maniculatus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/pema/all.html [2015, August 3].

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. Deer mouse. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

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Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii)

I am an evergreen tree. I live in forests from central California

north into Bri sh Columbia. I can grow at sea level and also

up on the mountain sides. I can grow in places with hot, dry

summers. I can grow with many other kinds of trees. When I

am old, I might be 75 meters tall, and my trunk might be

more than 2 meters thick.

I grow from seed. My seeds germinate best on bare soil. My

seedlings like to have a li le shade overhead. When they get

a li le bigger, they like a lot of sun. If I am living in a very

shady place, I have a spindly stem and I grow slowly. Dense

patches of spindly trees like this are called “thickets.”

I put my seeds in light, papery cones. Each seed has a 3‐

pointed "wing" that peeks out from under the cone scales.

These wings look like ny mouse feet s cking out between

the scales.

My seedlings grow well in burned places, but I can manage

for a long me without fire. I can survive surface fires when

I am old and my thick bark protects me from heat. When I

am young, my bark is thin, and surface fires kill me easily. No

ma er how old I am, it is bad news if my branches hang

close to the ground. Surface fires can use them as ladder

fuels and climb into my top, torching my crown. I cannot

survive crown fires.

I can begin growing from seed right a er fire, but I usually

grow more slowly than other kinds of trees, like pines, that

grow nearby. I can live a long me. Some Douglas‐firs have

lived longer than 1,000 years. If you were 10 years old, that

would be like 100 of your life mes!

Old Douglas‐fir tree. Image courtesy of Walter Siegmund.

Douglas‐fir cone. Image by Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte.

29

References: Hermann, Richard K.; Lavender, Denis P. 1990. Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco Douglas‐fir. In: Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., technical coordinators. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 527‐540.

Uchy l, Ronald J. 1991. Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sci‐ences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/psemenm/all.html [2016, January 15].

August 1, 2016

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. Coast Douglas‐fir. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


30

I look a li le like the rats that people keep for pets,

but I have big ears and a furry tail. I make my home in

wild places that have lots of shrubs. That includes

chaparral, woodlands, and forests from Oregon south

into Mexico. I like to live in places with dense cover

overhead. That helps me hide from predators.

I build my houses from s cks, bark, and other

materials. I have many houses. I build them on the

ground or up in trees. I make different rooms in my

houses for res ng, storing food, and pooping. I even

have a special room for storing foods that have to age

before I eat them. I eat mostly acorns, other seeds

and nuts, fruits, green plants, and fungi.

I have a li er of babies every year. They stay with

me for a few months, and then they move out to a

house nearby. If I move out of a house, another

woodrat will probably move in. Other animals use

my houses, too. Mice, shrews, frogs, snakes,

spiders, and insects use my houses for food and

shelter. My houses are great places to hide in.

If a fire is small and not too severe, I can run away

to another house and use that habitat for awhile.

If a fire is big, I might not be able to escape. Fires

reduce our food supply, so we do not use burned

places right a er the fires. But we NEED fire to

make good habitat. A few years a er fire, the

shrubs will grow thick and the new oak trees will

grow up. Then I will be able to find plenty of food,

hiding places, and materials for new houses. I will

move right back in.

(Neotoma fuscipes)

Female dusky‐footed woodrat in Plumas Na onal Forest, California. It is carrying a radio transmi er so scien sts can learn about its needs. Can you see its

antenna? Image by Robin Innes.

A dusky‐footed woodrat house in mixed‐conifer forest in Plumas Na onal Forest.

Image by Robin Innes.

31

References: Carraway, L. N.; Verts, B. J. 1991. Neotoma fuscipes. Mammalian Species. 386: 1‐10.

Costello, Robert; Rosenberger, Alfred, eds. 2015. Neotoma fuscipes: Dusky‐footed woodrat. In: North American Mammals, [Online]. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Na onal Museum of Natural History (Producer). Available: h p://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=214 [2015, July 10].

Innes, Robin J.; Van Vuren, Dirk H.; Kelt, Douglas A. 2008. Characteris cs and use of tree houses by dusky‐footed woodrats in the northern Sierra Nevada. Northwestern Naturalist. 89: 109‐112.

Innes, Robin J.; Van Vuren, Dirk H.; Kelt, Douglas A.; Johnson, Michael L.; Wilson, James A.; S ne, Peter A. 2007. Habitat associa ons of dusky‐footed woodrats (Neotoma fuscipes) in mixed‐conifer forest of the northern Sierra Nevada. Journal of Mammalogy. 88(6): 1523‐1531.

Innes, Robin J.; Van Vuren, Dirk H.; Kelt, Douglas A.; Wilson, James A.; Johnson, Michael L. 2009. Spa al organiza on of dusky‐footed woodrats (Neotoma fuscipes). Journal of Mammalogy. 90(4): 811‐818.

Meyer, Rachelle. 2007. Strix occidentalis. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/stoc/all.html [2015, June 19].

Innes, Robin. 2016. Dusky‐footed woodrat. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

32

I am a small, dark brown mammal about as big

as a house cat. I have a long body with short

legs, rounded ears, and a bushy tail. I am called a

“fisher,” but I do not eat fish. I eat porcupines,

snowshoe hares, squirrels, and smaller

mammals. I eat birds and insects, too. I also eat

nuts and berries, but I don’t have to sneak up on

them.

I live in dense, old forests. They have lots of large

trees, where I can hunt for squirrels. They have

logs and branches on the ground, where I can

catch mice and voles. I hunt mostly at night.

Some mes I travel a long way to find my prey. It

is ring work. During the day, I rest and hide in

tree cavi es, logs, and other sheltered places.

I will choose one of these places to make my den and have my babies.

A long me ago, there were many fishers in the forests of northern United States and

California. But there are not many old forests le , so nowadays there are not many of us

around. You would be very lucky to see one of us.

I do not like fire, but I can live with a few

small, patchy fires once in awhile. Adult

fishers like me can run away from fires into

unburned places. We do not mind having small

burned patches, as long as we s ll have a lot of

big trees and logs. We do mind if a fire kills a

lot of big trees and burns up the fallen logs.

This kind of fire makes it hard for us to find

prey and den sites. We have to move away and

search for be er habitat.

(Pekania pennan )

Face to face with a fisher. Do you see its long claws? Image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

Pacific Southwest Region.

Adult fisher. Image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

Pacific Southwest Region. 33

References: Meyer, Rachelle. 2007. Pekania pennan . In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammals/pepe/all.html [2015, September 9].

New World Encyclopedia. 2013. Fisher (animal), [Online]. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House Publishers (Producer). Available: h p://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Fisher_(animal). [2016, July 18].

Rhines, Cynthia. 2003. Martes pennan , fisher [Online]. In: Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology (Producer). Available: h p://animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/informa on/Martes_pennan .html [2015, October 20].

Innes, Robin. 2016. Fisher. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

34

I am small bird, not a fox. I got my name because of the

reddish feathers that I wear. Some mes our backs are

red, and some mes our wings are red. They look like the

beau ful fur of the red fox.

We live all over North America. Our favorite habitat is a

place with big patches of dense shrubs. That is why we

like chaparral. The shrubs produce lots of fruit and seeds

for us to eat. They also hide us while we scratch through

the leaf li er underneath. We are looking for beetles, fly

larvae, caterpillars, and other insects to eat. We like

spiders and millipedes, too.

I like to nest on the ground under low shrubs. Then I lay

2 to 5 eggs. I incubate them for about 2 weeks. My mate

and I take care of our chicks for about 10 days a er they

hatch. Then they are big enough to take care of

themselves!

Fires are good for shrubs. Both surface fires

and severe fires help make good habitat for

me. But I cannot use burned places right

away. For the first few years a er fire, there is

not much li er, so there are not many insects

for me to eat. The shrubs may be small, so

they cannot produce the fruits and seeds that I

need. A er a few years, the shrubs grow tall

and dense. Then they produce lots of fruit and

seeds. The ground will be covered with li er,

and the li er will be crowded with insects.

Then I will come back and make my home in

the burned area.

(Passerella iliaca)

Fox sparrow. See my pink legs? Image by Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

This fox sparrow is showing off the dark spot on its chest. Image by James C. Leupold,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

35

References: Bock, Carl E.; Raphael, Mar n; Bock, Jane H. 1978. Changing avian community structure during early post‐fire succession in the Sierra Nevada. Wilson Bulle n. 90(1): 119‐123.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2003. Fox sparrow, [Online]. In: All about birds: Bird guide. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Producer). Available: h p://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Fox_Sparrow/lifehistory [2015, August 21].

Ehrlich, Paul R.; Dobkin, David S.; Wheye, Darryl. 1988. The birder's handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc. 785 p.

Samuels, Ivan A.; Gardali, Thomas; Humple, Diana L.; Geupel, Geoffrey R. 2005. Winter site fidelity and body condi on of three riparian songbird species following a fire. Western North American Naturalist. 65(1): 45‐52.

Innes, Robin. 2016. Fox sparrow. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

36

Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)

I am a tall evergreen tree. I live in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains. I live in nearly

every kind of forest except the ho est, driest ones and the coldest ones. I like to live with

other kinds of conifer trees. I may grow to be more than 500 years old.

My leaves are green overlapping scales. Flat

sprays of leaves hang from my branches. I can

grow to be nearly 60 meters tall, and my trunk

can be more than 1 meter thick. When I am

young, my bark is thin. It gets thicker as I age.

It is reddish‐brown, with deep furrows.

My seeds and seedlings are not fussy about

where to live. My seeds can germinate on bare

soil or in duff, in sunlight or in shade. My

seedlings grow slowly in deep shade, but they

are pa ent. They can wait un l a tall neighbor

tree falls over and creates a sunny opening.

Then they will grow very fast.

Most of the forests where we grow are used

to surface fires. These fires used to come

through every 20 years or so. Surface fires kill

most of the young incense‐cedars because of

their thin bark. Fires can kill adult trees too, if

they climb from the low branches up into the

tree crowns. Many old trees, like me, can

survive surface fires because we have thick

bark.

Many of our forests have gone a long me

now without fire. They are filled with thickets

of young incense‐cedars. A surface fire can

easily climb up from these thickets into the tops of the big trees, torching their crowns. Then

it may become a crown fire and kill nearly every tree in its path.

A spray of incense‐cedar leaves. The golden‐yellow beads at the ps of twigs are male cones that will release pollen. The flared brown scales near the bo om of the photo are

female cones that opened and released their seeds last year. Image courtesy of Charles Webber ©

California Academy of Sciences.

Fire scars on the trunk of an incense‐cedar. Image courtesy of Walter Roth.

37

References: Powers, Robert F.; Oliver, William W. 1990. Libocedrus decurrens Torr., incense‐cedar. In: Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., tech. coords. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 173‐180.

Tollefson, Jennifer E. 2008. Calocedrus decurrens. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/caldec/all.html [2016, July 18].

Western Wood Products Associa on. 1956. Facts about incense cedar, [Online]. Portland, OR: Western Wood Products Associa on. Available: h p://www.spi‐ind.com/product_brochures/brochure‐IncenseCedarFacts.pdf [2015, December 7].

August 1, 2016

Kapler Smith, Jane. 2016. Incense‐cedar. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


38

Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi)

I am an evergreen tree. I have long, graceful needles that

shine in the sunlight. They grow in clusters of 3. But it is

hard to tell me apart from my neighbor, the ponderosa

pine. Look carefully at our cones. Both of us have prickles

on our cones, but mine point IN while ponderosa’s point

OUT. You can remember which tree is which by saying,

“Gentle Jeffrey, prickly ponderosa.”

I grow slowly, but I can live to be more than 600 years old!

I can get very tall, and my trunk may be more than 2

meters thick. When I get this big, my bark gets really thick

and has scaly plates that look like puzzle pieces. Some

people think it smells like vanilla or bu erscotch.

I live mostly in California and places nearby. I can grow

from the high mountains to the edges of dry deserts. I

reproduce from seeds. My seedlings grow best in places

with bright sunlight. They like places where fire has burned away the li er and duff.

Surface fires used to burn my homeland every few years. They killed the small trees that

grew in my shade. They burned the dead needles and fallen branches on the ground.

Nowadays, fires burn less o en. Many of my

forests are crowded with seedlings of white fir

and other species that like shade. These are

called ladder fuels. If a fire comes through this

kind of forest, it may climb from the li le trees

into the crowns of the big trees. It may become

a crown fire, or it may burn deep into the duff,

killing my roots. I cannot survive this kind of

fire.

Mature Jeffrey pine tree. Image courtesy of Jhodlof.

Jeffrey pine cones. Image courtesy of Christopher L. Chris e © 2004.

39

References: Gucker, Corey L. 2007. Pinus jeffreyi. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinjef/all.html [2016, July 18].

Jenkinson, James L. 1990. Pinus jeffreyi Grev. & Balf. Jeffrey pine. In: Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., tech. coords. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 359‐369.

Moerman, Dan. 2003. Na ve American ethnobotany: A database of foods, drugs, dyes, and fibers of Na ve American peoples, derived from plants, [Online]. Dearborn, MI: University of Michigan (Producer). Available: herb.umd.umich.edu/ [2015, May 8].

August 1, 2016

Murphy, Shannon. 2016. Jeffrey pine. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


40

“Mariposa” is the Spanish word for “bu erfly.” That describes my beau ful flowers with their

3 delicate petals. There are nearly 100 different species of mariposa lilies, and we grow

throughout North America. We grow in many kinds of habitat. We can live in places where

other plants cannot survive. We like steep hillsides and rocky soils. We like places with hot,

dry summers and cold winters.

I am a perennial. That means I can live for

many years. I started out as a ny seed.

When I was young, I looked like a plain blade

of grass. I was busy underground, growing my

bulb. It is made from special underground

leaves, like those of an onion. I store energy in

my bulb. That helps me survive cold winters,

hot summers, and wildland fires.

A er a few years, I was strong enough to

produce flowers. My flowers produce seeds,

and they will germinate in early spring, when

the soil is moist.

I like any kind of fire. I do not mind if my

leaves and flowers burn because my bulb is

protected deep in the soil. In the first

spring a er fire, I sprout from my bulb. Light

and nutri on is plen ful a er fire, so I can

produce even more flowers than before.

Mariposa lily (Calochortus species)

Mariposa lily flower. Image courtesy of Kim Pierson.

Mariposa lily bulb. Image courtesy of Jack Elliot.

41

References: Anderson, Kat. 1993. Na ve Californians as ancient and contemporary cul vators. In: Blackburn, Thomas C.; Anderson, Kat, eds. Before the wilderness: Environmental management by Na ve Californians. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press: 151‐174.

Anderson, M. Kat; Roderick, Wayne. 2006. Plant Guide: Mariposa lily‐‐Calochortus superbus Purdy ex J.T. Howell, [Online]. Davis, CA: University of California; Plant Science Department; Baton Rouge, LA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conserva on Service, Na onal Plant Data Center (Producers). Available: h p://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_casu3.pdf [2016, July 18].

Callahan, Frank. 2001. The genus Calochortus. In: McGary, Jane, ed. Bulbs of North America. Portland, OR: Timber Press and North American Rock Garden Society: 101‐137.

Los Padres ForestWatch. 2013. Mariposa Lily. Santa Barbara, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Los Padres Na onal Forest. 3 p.

Miller, Michael T.; Allen, Geraldine A.; Antos, Joseph A. 2004. Dormancy and flowering in two mariposa lilies (Calochortus) with contras ng distribu on pa erns. Canadian Journal of Botany. 82(12): 1790‐1799.

August 1, 2016

Masin, Eva. 2016. Mariposa lily. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


42

I am the biggest wild cat in the Americas. I am about 2

meters long from nose to tail, and I weigh a lot too.

Even though I am very big, I am a li le bit like a house

cat. I can purr, I have long claws, and I sleep a lot!

I can live in many kinds of habitat, from forests to

deserts. All I need is a big area for hun ng and plenty

of hiding places. When I am hun ng, I like to hide in

the shadows and then sneak up on my prey. Then I

pounce on my meal. I am a great jumper. I could easily

jump right over you. I could probably get across your

classroom in one leap.

Deer are my favorite food. I can eat a lot of meat in

one meal. If I get full, I cover my le overs with dry

leaves or grass. This hides them from other animals, so

I can finish them later.

When I was 2 years old, I had my first ki ens. I raised them all by myself. I moved them o en

to hide them from bears and coyotes. I had to kill a deer about every 3 days to keep us all fed!

When my ki ens were a year and a half old, they moved out and went looking for their own

place to live. We mountain lions live alone

most of the me.

I can run very fast, so I can usually get away

from fires. I do not like fires when I have ny

ki ens though. I have to move them out of

the way, and I may not be fast enough. I like

to visit burned places a er the fire goes out.

Burned places have lots of food for deer,

and that means lots of deer for me!

(Puma concolor)

Mountain lion’s face. Image courtesy of Itshears.

Adult mountain lion . Image courtesy of Tony Hisge .

43

References: Cullens, Lynn; Dunbar, Tim; Fred; Rodrigues, Amy. 2015. When is enough...enough? In: Ac ve threats to the species, Failing the American lion: MLF spe-cial feature from AWI Magazine, [Online]. Sacra-mento, CA: Mountain Lion Founda on; Washing-ton, DC: Animal Welfare Ins tute (Producers). Available: h p://www.mountainlion.org/featurear clefailingtheamericanlion.asp [2016, July 18].

Feldhamer, George A.; Thompson, Bruce C.; Chap-man, Joseph A., eds. 2003. Wild mammals of North America: Biology, management, and conserva on. 2nd ed. Bal more, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1216 p.

Hansen, Kevin. 1992. Cougar: the American lion. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing. 129 p.

Tesky, Julie L. 1995. Puma concolor. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Re-search Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/puco/all.html [2016, July 18]. Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/.

Murphy, Shannon. 2016. Mountain Lion. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

44

I am an evergreen shrub. That means that I keep my leaves all winter. I am kind of short for a

shrub. I will probably never get as tall as you are. My branches can grow roots wherever they

touch the ground, so I o en grow in big, wide patches. These patches are so dense that

people cannot walk through them and trees cannot grow in them. I do not grow well in the

shade.

I live in chaparral and forests from Oregon

south into Mexico. I especially like dry, open

areas. I grow sharp thorns at the ends of my

dense, whi sh branches. That is why some

people call me “whitethorn.” I grow white

flowers in small clusters at the ends of my

branches. When my petals fall, they make

the ground look like it is covered with snow,

so people also call me “snow bush.”

I produce a lot of seeds, but they do not

germinate right away. They have a hard

covering that keeps them dormant in the soil

and duff. Heat cracks the covering, which lets

water in. Then the ny plant inside can start

to grow.

I can handle any kind of fire. If a fire is not

very severe, I can sprout new stems and

leaves from a big, woody growth at the top

of my roots. If it is severe, the heat will open

thousands of my stored seeds, and the

ground will soon be covered by my seedlings.

My seedlings and sprouts will grow well

where it is sunny and fire has burned the

li er and duff away.

Mountain whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus)

Mountain whitethorn produces a lot of flowers. Image courtesy of Jean Pawek.

Mountain whitethorn bushes provides food and hiding places for small animals.

Image courtesy of Jean Pawek.

45

References: Reeves, Sonja L. 2006. Ceanothus cordulatus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/ceacor/all.html [2015, July 8].

August 1, 2016

Innes, Robin. 2016. Mountain whitehorn. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


46

There are two species of yellow‐legged frogs in

California. We look alike and live in the same

kind of habitat. We are called the Sierra Nevada

yellow‐legged frog and the southern mountain

yellow‐legged frog. Most of us live high in the

mountains.

We are amphibians, so we spend part of our life

in water and part on land. I never go more than

a meter or two from water. I have a light brown

back covered with brown spots. That is perfect

camouflage for the rocks and streams where I

live. I have a colorful underside though. I am decorated underneath with lots of yellow or

orange. I live in or near deep lakes and slow‐moving streams. I can survive there because they

do not dry up in the summer or freeze in the winter. I spend winter at the bo om of a lake,

wai ng for warm weather.

Many things make survival hard for us, but the worst is nonna ve fish! Long ago, there were

no fish up high in the mountains. But people brought trout to the high mountain lakes so they

could go fishing. Trout eat our food. They may even eat us! We used to be common in both

California and Nevada. But now we live only in California, and there are not many of us le .

Scien sts do not know for sure how fire

affects us. They think we survive fires

because we live in or near water. Li le fires

do not seem to bother us at all. Big, severe

fires – like crown fires ‐ remove the shade

from around our lakes and streams. That can

make the water too hot for us in summer.

With the shady plants gone, floods might be

more likely. That would change the streams

where we live. We might not be able to live

in the changed habitat.

(Southern mountain yellow‐legged frog, Rana muscosa and Sierra Nevada yellow‐legged frog, Rana sierrae)

Southern mountain yellow‐legged frog on a rock. Image courtesy of Gary Nafis.

Sierra Nevada yellow‐legged frog on a rock. Image courtesy of Gary Nafis.

47

References: Hossack, Blake R.; Pilliod, David S. 2011. Amphibian responses to wildfire in the western United States: emerging pa erns from short‐term studies. Fire Ecology. 7(2): 129‐144.

Knapp, Roland A. 2012. The mountain yellow‐legged frog site, [Online]. Mammoth Lakes, CA: Si‐erra Nevada Aqua c Research Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.mylfrog.info [2016, July 18].

Modovsky, Chris ne. 2007. Ecological risk assess‐ment: Wildland fire‐figh ng chemicals. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center. 50 p [+ appendix].

Rockney, Hedi; Wu, Karen. 2016. All about frogs, [Online]. Sea le, WA: Burke Museum (Producer). Available: h p://www.burkemuseum.org/blog/all‐about‐frogs [2016, July 18].

Murphy, Shannon. 2016. Mountain yellow‐legged frogs. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

48

I am a mule deer. I got this name because I

have long ears, almost like a mule's. I move my

ears all the me, listening for danger. When I

am frightened, I do not run like other deer do.

Instead, I bound up and away with all 4 feet,

like a pogo‐s ck. This trick helps me dodge

predators and escape very fast. I have to get

away from the mountain lions, coyotes, and

other animals that want to eat me!

Mule deer live in western North America. We

weigh about as much as adult humans. Males

are bigger than females like me. Only the males

have antlers. They shed their antlers in the winter and grow new ones each spring.

I spend most of the year with other mule deer. I go off alone to have my babies. I can have

fawns every spring. I nurse my fawns and keep them hidden for a week or two. Then they join

me and we eat plants together. I send them off on their own the next spring, when I am ready

to have new babies.

I like many kinds of habitat. Shrublands and grasslands provide plenty of food for me. Forests

provide shelter from storms and places to hide from predators. My favorite places have a

mixture of openings and shelter. Surface fires

help create good habitat for me, especially if

they make sunny openings where shrubs will

grow.

We can escape from most fires, but we can

be trapped by big fires that spread very fast,

like crown fires. We like to feed in burned

areas a er the plants begin to grow back.

But we will not use them if there are no

hiding places nearby.

(Odocoileus hemionus)

Male mule deer drinking water. Image courtesy of Robert Sivinski, CalPhotos.

Mule deer o en live in large groups. Image courtesy of Addison Mohler,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 49

References: Innes, Robin J. 2013. Odocoileus hemionus. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Depart‐ment of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Moun‐tain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/odhe/all.html [2015, July 22].

Wallmo, Olof C., ed. 1981. Mule and black‐tailed deer of North America. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 605 p.

Innes, Robin. 2016. Mule deer. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

50

I am a big hawk, and I live in big trees. The first part of

my name is pronounced “goss.” It rhymes with “toss.” I

live in North America, Europe, and northern Asia. I have

strong, short wings and a long tail. These help me move

fast and make quick turns in the forests where I live. I

need those skills to catch my prey. You cannot be slow if

you are going to live on crows, rabbits, or squirrels! I

hunt in forests, shrublands, and open areas – wherever

my prey animals live.

I build my nests in big trees. I keep the same mate year

a er year. I incubate our eggs while my mate brings me

food. I defend my nest fiercely. I will a ack you or any

other animal that gets too close. Some mes owls and

other hawks try to use my nests. They may force me

out. Then I have to move away and build a new nest.

I can easily escape

a fire without

ge ng burned.

I do not mind

surface fires at all.

I do not like crown fires because they might burn my

nest trees and my nest. Some fires improve my habitat.

If a fire creates open patches in a big forest, I will be able

to find more prey animals there, and I will be able to

hunt them more easily. Big, severe fires harm my habitat.

Right a er a big fire, the burned area may not have

enough prey animals for me. Later on, the burned area

may be so thick with new saplings that I cannot

hunt there.

(Accipiter gen lis)

This northern goshawk has a band around its leg. That means it is helping with

someone’s research! Image by Norbert Kenntner.

Adult northern goshawk watching us. Image by Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service.

51

References: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2003. [89106] Northern Goshawk, [Online]. In: All about birds: Bird guide. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Producer). Available: h p://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Goshawk/lifehistory [2015, July 6].

Stone, Katharine R. 2013. Accipiter gen lis. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/bird/acge/all.html [2016, July 18].

Innes, Robin. 2016. Northern goshawk. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

52

I am an evergreen tree. My scien fic name is Pinus ponderosa.

Ponderosa is a Spanish word meaning "large, heavy,

PONDEROUS." This is a good name for me because I can get very

big.

I live in the western United States. I also grow in western Canada

and Mexico. I like warm, dry forests. Some mes I grow with a

very similar tree, the Jeffrey pine. We look a lot alike! One way to

tell us apart is by our cones. My cones are smaller than Jeffrey’s,

and mine are more prickly. To help them remember, some people

say, “Gentle Jeffrey, prickly ponderosa.”

I am o en the tallest tree in a forest. My trunk can be more than

2 meters wide. My shiny, long needles grow in clusters of 3. I

have brownish bark. It gets thick and yellowish as I get old. It also

breaks apart so my trunk looks like it is covered by puzzle pieces.

I reproduce only from seed. I

cannot sprout a new plant from

my roots. My seeds germinate

best in bare soil with a lot of

sunlight. By the me my seedlings are 7 years old, they can

make cones and seeds of their own.

I like fires surface fires. My thick bark is the key to my

survival. It may be thick enough to protect me from a

surface fire by the me I am 10 years old! Surface fires

used to burn my habitat o en. They killed my low branches

and the small trees that grew in my shade. That made it

hard for the flames to reach my crown. If my homeland

does not burn for many years, lots of small trees will grow

under me. That makes it easier for a fire to climb through

the ladder fuels into my crown. Then it will kill even the

biggest, oldest trees – including me!

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa var. pacifica, var. ponderosa, and var. washoensis)

Mature ponderosa pine. Image by Sco Roberts,

Mississippi State University.

This surface fire is killing the small firs beneath a ponderosa pine. Image by Ilana Abrahamson.

53

References: Habeck, R. J. 1992. Pinus ponderosa var.

ponderosa. In: Fire Effects Informa on System,

[Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest

Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire

Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://

www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinponp/

all.html/ [2015, July 31].

LANDFIRE Biophysical Se ngs. 2009. LANDFIRE

Vegeta on Product Descrip ons, biophysical

se ngs, [Online]. In: Vegeta on Dynamics Models.

In: LANDFIRE. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain

Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory; U.S.

Geological Survey; Arlington, VA: The Nature

Conservancy (Producers). Available: h p://

www.landfire.gov/

Na onalProductDescrip ons20.php [2012,

December 4].

Moerman, Dan. 2003. Na ve American

ethnobotany: A database of foods, drugs, dyes, and

fibers of Na ve American peoples, derived from

plants, [Online]. Dearborn, MI: University of

Michigan (Producer). Available:

herb.umd.umich.edu/ [2015, May 8].

Richard, Terry. 2011. World’s tallest ponderosa

pine climbed, measured at 268 feet outside Grants

Pass. In: The Oregonian/OregonLive, [Online].

Portland, OR: The Oregonian (Producer). Available:

h p://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2011/12/

worlds_tallest_ponderosa_pine.html [2015,

August 4].

August 3, 2016

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. Ponderosa pine. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


54

I am a tree with bright green leaves and a white trunk. My

leaves are almost always moving. Even the lightest breeze

makes them shake and make a rustling sound. I am a

deciduous tree. My leaves turn bright yellow in the fall. Then

they drop off, and I grow new ones in the spring.

People all over the world know about me, because I live in

northern lands all around the world. I like cool, dry summers

and snowy winters. I grow best in places where the soil is

moist.

A single aspen tree is not really separate from other aspens

growing nearby. Underground, I am connected to many of my

neighbors. Most of us sprouted from the roots of other aspen

trees. A few of us grew from seeds, but our seeds are very

fragile. They live less than a month. Very few of them grow

into new trees.

Most fires pass me by because

I live in moist places. But I do

like to burn once in awhile. Any

kind of fire will do. Fires usually

top‐kill my branches and trunk,

but they hardly ever harm my

roots. I can grow dozens of

sprouts the next year. They love

to grow in the sunny openings

that fires make. Within a year,

they may be taller than you!

They grow faster than conifer

seedlings because they are

a ached to big, healthy roots

from the top‐killed tree.

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)

Aspen leaf. Image by Paul Wray, Iowa State University.

Quaking aspen trunks. Image by Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service.

Aspens in the fall. Image by Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service.

55

References: Howard, Janet L. 1996. Populus tremuloides. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/poptre/all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Quaking aspen. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


56

I live in the western United States and Canada, from Alaska

south to New Mexico. I grow mainly in dry forests and

meadows. I can grow in many kinds of soil. Sunny places and

light shade are great for me. I cannot live in dark, shady

forests.

I look like a grass, but I am not. How can you tell? Try to roll my

stem between your fingers. You cannot do it because my stems

have edges on them. Grass stems are round, so you can roll

them easily. My stems are also solid all the way through. Grass

stems are hollow.

I grow stems and leaves from my root crown. That is the place

where the stems meet the roots. Some mes I have short

underground rhizomes too.

My flowers are ny. My seeds fall to the

ground when they are ripe. I store them in

the soil. They might live there for many years.

I really like severe fires because they create

open, sunny places. That is where my

seedlings and sprouts will thrive.

Fires burn off my leaves and stems, but do not

worry about me. I can sprout from my root

crown or rhizomes a er almost any fire. I can

also grow from seeds a er fire. When I am

living in a shady forest, I like fires that kill the

trees and give me more sunlight.

Ross’s sedge (Carex rossii)

Ross’s sedge plants. Image by Paul Slitcher.

Ross’s sedge seeds. Image by Aaron Authur.

Ross’s sedge grows in dry meadows and Sierra lodgepole pine forests.

Image by Jon Sullivan.

57

References: Anderson, Michelle D. 2008. Carex rossii. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/carros/all.html [2016, July 18]

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Ross’s sedge. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


58

I am a prickly shrub. My branches are covered with

sharp spines. I live mostly in California, but you can

also find me nearby in Oregon and Nevada. I grow

best in open forests, oak woodlands, and chaparral.

I love hot, dry places. I can live happily for weeks or

months without rain.

I am a perennial, which means I can live for many

years. Each spring I grow new green leaves. Each

autumn my leaves turn red and gold, and then

they fall.

My berries are spiny, but birds and mammals eat

them anyway. These animals cannot digest the

seeds inside. The seeds come out in their poop. It is a great way for me to get my seeds

planted in new places. The animals even leave a li le fer lizer with the seeds!

My seeds can survive in the soil for many years. Fires help them germinate. Fires crack open

their hard coats. That lets water in, so the seeds can start to grow. Fires also create big,

sunny openings where my seedlings can thrive.

Fires may top‐kill my branches and leaves, but my roots usually survive. Then I will probably

sprout from my root crown. That is where my stems meet my roots. My sprouts and

seedlings are among the first plants to show up a er fire, especially if the fire was severe

enough to create big, sunny openings.

Some mes surface fires do not create sunny

openings, and some mes my home does not

burn for a long me. Then my habitat gets too

shady and other plants take my place.

I am some mes a host for a fungus called white

pine blister rust. The rust does not hurt me at

all. But if its spores travel from my leaves to

sugar pines or whitebark pines, the rust can kill

them.

Sierra gooseberry (Ribes roezlii)

Sierra gooseberry plant. Image courtesy of Becky Howard.

Sierra gooseberries have lots of spines. Image courtesy of Barry Breckling ©2009.

59

References: Benedict, W. V. 1983. White pine blister rust: Cronar um ribicola J. C. Fischer. In: Report 1180. O awa, Canada: Environment Canada, Forestry Service, Publica ons Department: 185‐188.

O s, Alison T.; Honey, William D.; Hogg, Thomas C.; Lakin, Kimberly K. 1986. Region 5‐‐‐The California Region. In: The Forest Service and the civilian conserva on corps: 1933‐1942, [Online]. Corvalis, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, United States Forest Service (Producer). Available online: h ps://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/ccc/ccc/chap7.htm [2016, July 18].

Prairie Works. 2010. What’s in a name? Gooseberry, [Online]. Galena, IL: Prairie Works, Inc. (Producer). Available: h p://www.prairieworksinc.com/?s=gooseberry [2015, June 3]

Quick, Clarence R. 1954. Ecology of the Sierra Nevada gooseberry in rela on to blister rust control. Circ. No. 937. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 30 p.

Ulev, Elena. 2006. Ribes roezlii. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/ribroe/all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Masin, Eva. 2016. Sierra gooseberry. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


60

There are three kinds of lodgepole pine. My

name tells you where I live. I am the only kind of

lodgepole pine that lives in the Sierra Nevada.

Another kind lives mostly near the Pacific coast.

The third kind lives mainly in the Rocky

Mountains.

My needles are about 5 cen meters long and

grow in bundles of two. My cones are about as

long as my needles. They have small, sharp

prickles on them. You may have heard that

lodgepole pine cones need heat from a fire to

open them. That is true for many of the

lodgepole pines that live in the Rocky Mountains,

but not for me.

My bark is usually too thin to protect me from

the heat of fire. Surface fires may kill my

cambium. Some mes they damage my roots,

too. Crown fires kill me. You may think that I do not like fires, but that is not true. I like all

kinds of fire because they create the perfect places for my seedlings to grow. A er a fire, my

seeds float in from unburned places nearby. My seedlings will grow fast because fire has

cleared away the li er and duff. If I am lucky,

my seedlings can be 6 meters tall by the me

they are 20 years old!

My seedlings do not grow well in shade, but

the seedlings of fir trees do. If my forests do

not have fire, a lot of fir seedlings may grow in

my shade. The firs soon outnumber the pines,

and that is not good for me! If the forest stays

open and sunny, I stay healthy, and I can live to

be hundreds of years old.

Sierra lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. murrayana)

Old Sierra lodgepole pines make people look small. Image by C. J. Earle.

Inside a forest of Sierra lodgepole pines. Image by Ilana Abrahamson.

61

References:

Cope, Amy B. 1993. Pinus contorta var. murrayana. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinconm/all.html [2016, July 18]

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Sierra lodgepole pine. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


62

I am a shrub. I live in the foothills and mountains of

California and Oregon. I am very colorful. I have pink or

white flowers, light green leaves, and red fruits. The bark

on my branches is the color of cinnamon.

I am evergreen, so I keep my thick, leathery leaves year‐

round. I usually have a s cky coa ng on my leaves,

flowers, and fruits. Mammals and birds love to eat my

fruits. I am glad they do. They cannot digest my seeds, so

the seeds come out in their droppings. These helpful

animals spread my seeds far and wide!

I am a messy plant. My old leaves fall off a er a few years

and pile up on the ground. My bark peels off and piles up

on the ground too. This li er burns very easily. My

branches and even my living, green leaves burn easily

too. I am a wonderful fuel for wildland fires.

When I catch on fire, I die. You might think I would not

like fire, but I love it! The more severe the fire, the be er I like it. You see, I need fire to

con nue my life cycle. I reproduce only from seed, but my seeds have very hard coats. They

cannot start to grow un l something breaks

their coats open and lets water in. That is what

fires do! My seeds germinate well in burned

places, and my seedlings grow fast in the

sunshine. A few years a er fire, new patches

of manzanita grow in the burn and produce

seeds. Once the new seeds are in the ground, I

am ready for the next fire.

Sticky whiteleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida)

Cinnamon‐colored bark. Image by Jean Pawek.

Whi sh leaves and s cky fruits. Image by Richard W. Spjut.

63

References:

Fryer, Janet L. 2015. Arctostaphylos viscida, s cky whiteleaf manzanita. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/arcvis/all.html [2016, July 18]

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Sierra gooseberry. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


64

I am the world’s largest kind of pine tree. I can grow more

than 60 meters tall and more than 3 meters wide. I grow

slowly when I am young, so it takes me a long me to get

that big.

I have long, so needles. I live mostly in California and

places nearby. I am most common at middle eleva ons in

the Sierra Nevada.

I produce the longest cones of any conifer on earth. My

cones can be longer than longer than your arm! Small

mammals and birds eat my seeds. Some mes they store

my seeds in the ground to be eaten later. I like that. If

those hidden seeds do not get eaten, they may grow into

new trees.

When I was a young tree, my bark was too thin to protect

me from surface fires. Now that I am old, my bark is

thick. I can survive fires if they do not get too hot. If fires

visit my habitat o en, they make lots of small, sunny openings in the forest. My seedlings

thrive there because they get sunshine and a li le bit of shade. If fires do not visit for a long

me, the forest fills with small trees and shrubs. My seedlings and saplings grow poorly in

their shade. When these dense forests burn,

the fires are likely to kill all of the old trees

like me. They may even be huge crown fires.

The burned area will probably be too sunny

and hot for my seedlings.

More than 100 years ago, a fungus called

“white pine blister rust” came from Romania

to western North America. It has killed many

sugar pines, but some of us are strong enough

to resist infec on. I hope I am one of them!

Sugar pine (Pinus lamber ana)

Sugar pine cone. Image by Ilana Abrahamson.

Sugar pines. Image by Ilana Abrahamson.

65

References: Boerker, R. H. 1916. Ecological inves ga ons upon

the germina on and early growth of forest trees.

University Studies. XVI(1,2): 1‐89 [+ plates]

Habeck, R. J. 1992. Pinus lamber ana. In: Fire

Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S.




www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinlam/


Kinloch, Bohun B., Jr. 1984. Pinus lamber ana. An

American Wood. U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, Government Prin ng Office. FS‐257.

Sugihara, Neil G.; McBride, Joe R. 1992. Dynamics

of sugar pine and associated species following non‐

stand‐replacing fires in white fir‐dominated mixed‐

conifer forests. In: Sugar pine status, values, and

roles in ecosystems. Proceedings of a symposium

presented by the California Sugar Pine

Management Commi ee; Davis, CA: University of

California; 1992 March 30‐April 1. Publica on 3362.

Oakland, CA: University of California, Division of

Agriculture and Natural Resources: 39‐44.

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Innes, Robin. 2016. Sugar pine. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


66

“Wavyleaf” is a good name for me, because my leaves

o en have wavy edges. I have white, sweet‐smelling

flowers that open in the evening and close in the morning.

Bees visit my flowers in the evening to sip on my nectar and

harvest my pollen. Moths visit my flowers at night.

The biggest part of me hides underground. My bulb can be

as big as a grown‐up’s fist. It is covered on the outside with

thick brown fibers. Inside, it is white and starchy like a

potato. People can eat it, but only a er it is cooked. Eaten

raw, it tastes like soap!

My roots come out from the bo om of my bulb. As they

grow, they pull my bulb deeper and deeper into the soil. If a

mule deer or another animal eats my leaves, I sprout new

ones from my bulb.

When I am about 6 years old, I flower and

make seeds for the first me. I do not make

seeds every year, though. When I am growing

in shade, I may not make flowers at all. I grow

best in sunny places. I live in the grasslands,

chaparral, woodlands, and forests of California

and Oregon.

Fires almost never harm me. They may burn

off my stem and leaves. That top‐kills me, but

it does not damage my bulb because it is

buried in the soil. My roots pull my bulb

deeper into the soil every year. So the older I

get, the safer I am from fire.

I love the open, sunny spots that fires make. The first year a er fire, I put on a big flower

show, and my flowers produce a huge seed crop. The next year, the burned place will

probably have more wavyleaf soap plants than it had before the fire.

Wavyleaf soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum)

Flowers and buds. Image by Barry Breckling.

This wavyleaf soap plant is growing in a burned place. The edges of its leaves show why it is named “wavyleaf.”

Image by Becky Howard.

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References: Fryer, Janet L. 2015. (Revised from Reeves, Sonja L. 2006.) Chlorogalum pomeridianum, wavyleaf soap plant. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/forb/chlpom/all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Wavyleaf soap plant. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


68

I am a rare and wonderful plant. There are only

about 2,000 Webber’s milkvetch plants in the

whole world. They are all in Plumas County,

California. I grow on shrubby slopes and in

forests that get a lot of sunlight. I like to grow in

places with bare soil or soil that has been

s rred up. I some mes grow on the side of a

road or trail.

I look a li le like the pea plants that you might

grow in your garden. I am covered with

smooth, silvery hairs. My flowers are white or

creamy yellow. My seed pods look like li le

balloons. They contain my ny, hard seeds.

When the wind blows, the seeds shake around inside the pods and sound like a baby’s ra le.

When my seed pods fall off, they usually land somewhere near me. The pods rot away. That

frees my seeds, but they are covered by a very hard coat. This coat keeps the seeds from

ge ng water and star ng to grow. If you rub my seeds with sandpaper, you can open them.

But people do not know how our seeds get opened in their natural habitat. Does the heat

from fires break them open? Can grown‐

up plants sprout from underground a er

fire? Fires make sunny openings with

bare soil. Do we need fires to make our

habitat perfect? Maybe you will be the

scien st who finds out!

Webber’s milkvetch (Astragalus webberi)

Webber’s milkvetch plant with flowers. Image by Steve Matson.

Webber’s milkvetch flowers. Image by Steve Matson.

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References: Baldwin, Bruce G.; Goldman, Douglas H.; Keil, David J.; Pa erson, Robert; Rosa , Thomas J.; Wilken, Dieter H., eds. 2012. The Jepson manual. Vascular plants of California, second edi on. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 1568 p.

Coppole a, Michelle. 2015. [Email to Janet Fryer] August 24. Regarding Webber's milkvetch. Quincy, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Sierra Cascade Province. On file at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; FEIS files.

Coppole a, Michelle. 2016. [Personal communica on to Janet Fryer]. 17 May. Regarding Webber's Milkvetch. Quincy, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Plumas Na onal Forest. Unpublished informa on on file with: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; FEIS files.

Coppole a, Michelle; Belsher‐Howe, Jim; Merriam, Kyle. 2012. Inves ga ng the effect of prescribed fire on Webber's milkvetch (Astragalus webberi) germina on. In: Merriam, Kyle; Belsher‐Howe, Jim; Coppole a, Michelle. Summary of Weber's milkvetch HFQLG monitoring: 2008‐2011. Quincy, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Plumas Na onal Forest: 8‐12.

Merriam, Kyle; Belsher‐Howe, Jim; Coppole a, Michelle. 2012. Summary of Weber's milkvetch HFQLG monitoring: 2008‐2011. Quincy, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Plumas Na onal Forest. 12 p.

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. Webber’s milkvetch. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


70

You can recognize me by my gray fur and long, bushy tail. I am the largest kind of tree squirrel

living in the Sierra Nevada. I do not hibernate, like ground squirrels do. Instead, I stay busy

throughout the winter, just like you do. Also like you, I stay awake during the day and asleep

at night.

I like all kinds of forests, but oak and pine

forests are my favorites. I love to eat acorns. I

also eat leaves, berries, fungi, and even insects.

I eat other kinds of seeds, too. I cache some

seeds to eat during the winter, when the

ground will be covered with snow.

My habitat must have trees, and some of the

trees must have holes in them. I hide and rest in

the holes and have my babies there. When the

babies get too big for the hole, I build a pile of

s cks up high in a tree and move them there. I

protect my home and my babies carefully. If you

come too near, I might stamp my foot, flick my

tail, and bark loudly to warn you away, saying,

“Cha‐cha‐cha!!”

Surface fires do not usually harm me or my

habitat. But fires that kill a lot of trees, like

crown fires, force me to move away because

they wipe out my food and res ng places. A

fire that gets very large and moves very fast

could trap and kill me or my young.

Even though fires are dangerous, I like them.

They create good growing condi ons for the trees that produce my food, especially for oaks.

A er a fire, I might cache seeds in the burned area. If I leave any in the soil, they could grow

into the trees of the new forest.

(Sciurus griseus)

Adult western gray squirrel ea ng a seed. Image by Joseph V. Higbee.

Three young western gray squirrels. Image by Ma Vander Haegan.

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References: Borchert, Mark I.; Tyler, Claudia M. 2010. Acorn dispersal of California black oak a er a stand‐replacing fire. Fire Ecology. 6(3): 136‐141.

Carraway, L. N.; Verts, B. J. 1994. Sciurus griseus. Mammalian Species. 474: 1‐7.

Gregory, S. C. 2005. Seasonal movements and nest site selec on of the western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) in the Methow River Watershed. University of Washington. 92 p. Thesis.

Innes, Robin. 2016. Western gray squirrel. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

72

I am a grayish‐green bird about as big as a

sparrow. I look just like my mate. We are very

plain. Our only fancy feathers are two whi sh

bars on our wings. Our name comes from our

song. Male bids make a harsh, buzzy “pee‐

eer” song to a ract us females. You may not

be impressed, but I find it irresis ble!

I build our nest out of grasses, lichens, spider

webs, and shredded bark. I line it with fine

grasses to make it so for my babies. I usually

build it in a fork in a tree branch high off the

ground. I hide it well to keep predators away.

I am a great flyer because I have to catch my food in mid‐air. I eat mostly flying insects. A er I

catch them, I perch on a tree branch to eat. That keeps me hidden from hawks and other

birds who try to make prey out of me!

I spend my summers in western North America and Central America. My favorite places are

forests and woodlands that have plenty of openings where I can catch food. I spend my

winters in the tropical rainforests of South America.

I can live in unburned forests and in most

forests burned by surface fires. I like places

where fire has burned some trees and not

others. That makes good habitat for the

flying insects that I eat. I do not like forests

where most of the trees have been killed by

fire. A crown fire would destroy my nest,

change my habitat, and maybe kill off much

of my food.

(Contopus sordidulus)

A western wood peewee and her babies. Image courtesy of Gerald and Buff Corsi ©

California Academy of Sciences.

Western wood‐peewees perching on branches. Image courtesy of Larry Thompson/www.discoverlife.org

73

References: Bagne, Karen E.; Purcell, Kathryn L. 2011. Short‐term responses of birds to prescribed fire in fire‐suppressed forests of California. The Journal of Wildlife Management. 75(5): 1051‐1060.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2003. Western Wood‐Pewee, [Online]. In: All about birds: Bird guide. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Producer). Available: h p://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Wood‐Pewee/lifehistory [2015, August 19].

Gasparella, L. 2004. Contopus sordidulus, [On‐line]. Animal Diversity Web, h p://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Contopus_sordidulus/ [August 19, 2015]. Kaufman, Kenn. 2016. Western wood‐pewee. In: Guide to American Birds, [Online]. St. Paul, MN: Na onal Audubon Society (Producer). Available:

h ps://www.audubon.org/field‐guide/bird/western‐wood‐pewee

Meehan, Timothy D.; George, T. Luke. 2003. Short‐term effects of moderate‐ to high‐severity wildfire on a disturbance‐dependent flycatcher in northwest California. The Auk. 120(4): 1102‐1113.

Saab, Victoria A.; Powell, Hugh D. W. 2005. Fire and avian ecology in North America: Process influencing pa ern. In: Saab, Victoria A.; Powell, Hugh D. W., eds. Fire and avian ecology in North America. Studies in Avian Biology No. 30. Ephrata, PA: Cooper Ornithological Society: 1‐13.

Innes, Robin. 2016. Western wood‐pewee. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on. 2p.

August 1, 2016

74

Nowadays, I am the most plen ful tree in many of the

old forests of the West. I grow from Oregon south into

Mexico. I can be a tall, stately tree. I grow best in the

mountains of Oregon and California. I especially like

crowded, shady forests.

I grew from a seed. I started making my own cones and

seeds when I was about 40 years old. My cones do not

fall off the tree when they are ripe. Instead, they just

fall apart and drop my seeds.

My seedlings can grow in full sun and also in deep

shade. They do not like the hot a ernoon sun. Their

favorite places are cool and a li le bit shady. They grow

slowly, but they are very pa ent. Eventually, they grow

taller than other kinds of trees.

I rule many western forests nowadays, but it was

different back in the olden days, when fire was in

charge. My seedlings and saplings have very thin bark,

so surface fires usually kill them. My bark gets thicker

as I age, but surface fires can easily get into my

low branches. Then they climb up these ladder

fuels into my crown. This kind of fire kills me.

Nowadays, there are not as many surface fires,

so lots of my seedlings grow up. The forest

becomes full of white firs. We take moisture

that our neighbor trees need, and we create a

lot of ladder fuels. When fires visit our forest

nowadays, they may be bigger and ho er than

they used to be.

White fir (Abies concolor)

The large white firs in the center are shading out the ponderosa pines around them.

Image by J. E. (Jed) and Bonnie McClellan © California Academy of Sciences.

This prescribed fire is killing white fir seedlings. Image by of Ilana Abrahamson.

75

References: Arno, Stephen F.; Sco , Joe H.; Hartwell, Michael G. 1995. Age‐class structure of old growth ponderosa pine/Douglas‐fir stands and its rela onship to fire history. Res. Pap. INT‐RP‐481. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Sta on. 25 p.

Zouhar, Kris. 2001. Abies concolor. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/abicon/all.html [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Fryer, Janet. 2016. White fir. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture,


76

I am a fungus. I am like a plant in many ways, but I reproduce with spores instead of seeds. And I do not get my energy directly from the sun, like plants do. Instead, I grow on plants and reach inside them to get my nutri on. In order to reproduce, I need 2 different kinds of “host” plants. One of them is a special kind of pine tree. I only live on the kinds of pines that a ach their needles to the branches in bundles of 5. There are many kinds of “5‐needle” pines in western North America: sugar pine, whitebark pine, limber pine, foxtail pine, white pine, and bristlecone pine. My other host plant

can be a shrub or wildflower. Gooseberry bushes are some of my favorites. I do not hurt the shrubs and wildflowers that nourish me, but I kill most of my tree hosts.

I am na ve to Asia, and I have lived in Europe for hundreds of years. In 1910, I hitchhiked to North America on some pine seedlings. I have only been here for about 100 years, but I have already killed many of the 5‐needle pines here. I am small, so you may not no ce me un l you see a tree that I have infected. Its needles and twigs will have yellow spots. It may have blisters on its trunk and branches. Eventually, it will have many dead branches and big, open wounds on its trunk.

A few of my host trees can survive my infec on. They are called “resistant” trees. People search for these trees and collect their seeds. They germinate the seeds carefully. Then they plant the seedlings in places where the old trees have died. This way, they hope to grow a new genera on of resistant trees.

Fires do not bother me at all. If a fire kills my host tree, of course, it will kill me. But my spores will soon arrive in the burned area. Fire helps most of my host plants grow or reproduce, so I will spread quickly. The only thing that can stop me is a resistant tree. Maybe someday there will be whole forests full of them.

White pine blister rust (Cronar um ribicola)

White pine blister rust on a sugar pine trunk. Image courtesy of William Jacobi, Colorado State University.

Leaves of a currant bush infected with white pine blister rust. Image couresty of Petr Kapitola, Central Ins tute for

Supervising and Tes ng in Agriculture.

77

References: Fryer, Janet L. 2002. Pinus albicaulis. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinalb/all.html [2016, July 18].

Habeck, R. J. 1992. Pinus lamber ana. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinlam/all.html [2016, July 18].

Maloy, O.C. 2008. White pine blister rust, [Online]. St. Paul, MN: The American Phytopathological Society (Producer). Available: h p://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/fungi/Basidiomycetes/Pages/WhitePine.aspx [2015, September 16].

Schoe le, Anna W.; Laskowski, Michele; Co on, Vicki; Stephens, Suzy; Central Rockies White Pine Health Team. 2015. High eleva on white pines. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Conserva on Educa on Program; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Protec on, Forest Health Management; U.S. Department of Interior, Na onal Park Service; Co on Digital Graphics (Producers). Available online: h p://www.fs.fed.us/rm/higheleva onwhitepines/index.htm [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Abrahamson, Ilana. 2016. White pine blister rust. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


78

I hitched a ride from my homeland to North America in the

1800s, and I have been spreading ever since. That makes me a

weed. I like places that have warm, dry summers and cool, wet

winters. I am most common in California because it has the best

weather for me.

I usually grow as an annual plant. That means that I can

germinate, grow, and make flowers and seeds all in one year, and

then I die. I can make more than 10,000 flowers in my short

life me.

Many of my seeds have short bristles that s ck to anything that

touches them. That includes animal hair and your socks! My

s cky seeds have helped me spread to nearly all of the United

States. I grow really well in grasslands and along roadsides

because they have lots of sunlight.

When I grow with other yellow starthistles, we can

become so dense that we crowd out other plants.

That is why people do not like us and call us weeds.

Scien sts are trying to figure out how to get rid of

us. They have found one method that keeps me

under control. They collected insects that feed on

me in my Mediterranean home and brought them

to the United States. They turned the insects loose

in big fields full of yellow starthistle. The insects laid

their eggs on me. When the eggs hatched, the larvae

ate my flowers and seeds. This control method does

not get rid of ALL yellow starthistles, but it keeps us from spreading very fast.

Yellow starthistles will s ck around with fire or without it. Any kind of fire kills us, but most

of our seeds on the ground survive. Besides, recently burned areas provide a lot of sunlight

and bare soil. That makes perfect growing condi ons for us. We like fire, and it will help us

stay around for a long me.

Yellow starthistle (Centaurea sols alis)

Yellow starthistles have sharp spines. Don’t touch! Image courtesy of Peggy Greb, USDA Agricultural

Research Service.

Larva of a biocontrol insect. Image courtesy of Charles Turner, USDA Agricultural Research Service.

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References: Zouhar, Kris. 2002. Centaurea sols alis. In: Fire Effects Informa on System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Sta on, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: h p://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/forb/censol/all.html [2016, July 18].

Jacobs, J.; Mangold, J.; Parkinson, H.; Graves, M. 2011. Plant Guide: Yellow Star‐thistle‐‐Centaurea sols alis L., [Online]. Bozeman, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conserva on Service, Montana State Office (Producer). Available: h p://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_ceso3.pdf [2016, July 18].

August 1, 2016

Innes, Robin. 2016. Yellow starthistle. In: FireWorks encyclopedia, younger version. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department


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