Fire on the Mountain: 2 Forests Offer Clues to Yellowstone’s Fate in a Warming World
For the past 10,000 years, these woods have burned approximately every 100 to 300 years, meaning fires typically scorched old trees
But as climate change leads to longer and hotter dry seasons, younger forests throughout the Yellowstone region may start burning more frequently.
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Second, the fires could burn up larger sections of forest.
But climate change may be pushing even these hardy forests past their breaking point, said Dr. Harvey,
and how trees regrow in Stumptown could be a sign of things to come.
Small islands of forest often survive even within otherwise burned areas, said Brian Harvey, an ecologist at the University of Washington,
and seeds from these preserved areas often blow into the surrounding burned forests or are carried there by animals.
But when part of the young forest burned again just sixteen years into its regrowth,
creating Stumptown, it had not yet produced many serotinous cones.
“When fires burn at short intervals, we have a lot fewer trees coming back,” Dr. Turner said.