Boysag Point: A Relict Area on the North Rim of Grand Canyon in Arizona

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ervin M. Schmutz ◽  
Charles C. Michaels ◽  
B. Ira Judd
Keyword(s):  
Grand Canyon ◽  
The North ◽  
North Rim

scholarly journals Assessing the Relationship between Forest Structure and Fire Severity on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentijn Hoff ◽  
Eric Rowell ◽  
Casey Teske ◽  
LLoyd Queen ◽  
Tim Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Component Structure ◽  
The North ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
North Rim

While operational fire severity products inform fire management decisions in Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA), managers have expressed the need for better quantification of the consequences of severity, specifically forest structure. In this study we computed metrics related to the forest structure from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data and investigated the influence that fires that burned in the decade previous had on forest structure on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We found that fire severity best explains the occurrence of structure classes that include canopy cover, vertical fuel distribution, and surface roughness. In general we found that high fire severity resulted in structure types that exhibit lower canopy cover and higher surface roughness. Areas that burned more frequently with lower fire severity in general had a more closed canopy and a lower surface roughness, with less brush and less conifer regeneration. In a random forests modeling exercise to examine the relationship between severity and structure we found mean canopy height to be a powerful explanatory variable, but still proved less informative than the three-component structure classification. We show that fire severity not only impacts forest structure but also brings heterogeneity to vegetation types along the elevation gradient on the Kaibab plateau. This work provides managers with a unique dataset, usable in conjunction with vegetation, fuels and fire history data, to support management decisions at GRCA.

Assessing fire regimes on Grand Canyon landscapes with fire-scar and fire-record data

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Z. Fulé ◽  
Thomas A. Heinlein ◽  
W. Wallace Covington ◽  
Margaret M. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Scar ◽  
The North ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Record Data ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
North Rim

Fire regimes were reconstructed from fire-scarred trees on five large forested study sites (135–810 ha) on the North and South Rims at Grand Canyon National Park. Adequacy of sampling was tested with cumulative sample curves, effectiveness of fire recording on individual trees, tree age data, and the occurrence of 20th Century fires which permitted comparison of fire-scar data with fire-record data, a form of modern calibration for the interpretation of fire-scar results. Fire scars identified all 13 recorded fires >8 ha on the study sites since 1924, when record keeping started. Records of fire season and size corresponded well with fire-scar data. We concluded that the sampling and analysis methods were appropriate and accurate for this area, in contrast to the suggestion that these methods are highly uncertain in ponderosa pine forests. Prior to 1880, fires were most frequent on low-elevation ‘islands’ of ponderosa pine forest formed by plateaus or points (Weibull Median Probability Intervals [WMPI] 3.0–3.9 years for all fires, 6.3–8.6 years for ‘large’ fires scarring 25% or more of the sampled trees). Fires were less frequent on a higher-elevation ‘mainland’ site located further to the interior of the North Rim (WMPI 5.1 years all fires, 8.7 years large fires), but fires tended to occur in relatively drier years and individual fires were more likely to burn larger portions of the study site. In contrast to the North Rim pattern of declining fire frequency with elevation, a low-elevation ‘mainland’ site on the South Rim had the longest fire-free intervals prior to European settlement (WMPI 6.5 years all fires, 8.9 years large fires). As in much of western North America, surface fire regimes were interrupted around European settlement, 1879 on the North Rim and 1887 on the South Rim. However, either two or three large surface fires have burned across each of the geographically remote point and plateau study sites of the western North Rim since settlement. To some extent, these sites may be rare representatives of nearly-natural conditions due to the relatively undisrupted fire regimes in a never-harvested forest setting.

DISCOVERY OF FOSSIL TRACKS ON THE NORTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON

Science ◽  
1928 ◽  
Vol 67 (1730) ◽  
pp. 216-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Gilmore ◽  
G. E. Sturdevant
Keyword(s):  
Grand Canyon ◽  
The North ◽  
North Rim

scholarly journals Changes in Severity Distribution after Subsequent Fires on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentijn Hoff ◽  
Casey C. Teske ◽  
James P. Riddering ◽  
Lloyd P. Queen ◽  
Eric G. Gdula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Grand Canyon National Park ◽  
The North ◽  
North Rim
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