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| Sierra Nevada Forests |
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Since the 1960s, pioneering studies on the effects of both forest fires and decades of fire suppression have been carried out in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Fire suppression in the Sierra Nevada has now led to conditions in which catastrophic fires may threaten the forests themselves. Suppression of lightning-caused fires has resulted in denser forests, invasion of open areas by trees and shrubs and large accumulations of woody debris.
Scientists and managers in the Sierra Nevada parks have long recognized the essential nature of fire in these forests and have responded over the years with an increasingly sophisticated fire restoration program using both prescribed burns and natural fires. |
 Ecosystem Impacts of Fire Hazard Reduction 
Fire and Fuel in a Sierra Nevada Ecosystem
from Status and Trends of the Nation's
Biological Resources
Fire and Sequoia Reproduction
Fuel Mapping and Fire Model
Impact of Fire and Grazing on Plant Diversity and Invasion in Sierran Forests
Sierra Nevada Global Change Research Program
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