October 2021 - 35

Amundson, Game and Fish terrestrial habitat
biologist in Laramie. " The word mosaic applies
well to this fire. "
The mosaic of burned and unburned areas
can create a range of vegetation age classes and
high-quality forage in big game seasonal ranges.
Following the Mullen Fire, the U.S. Forest Service
mapped the severity of the burned area, and it was
a mixed bag. Fire intensity was much higher in
areas of high conifer densities, and as of late June
many of those areas had seen little-to-no new vegetation
growth. However, areas with low-to-moderate
fire severity should recover within the next
several years.
" We are already seeing this in areas outside of
heavy conifer stands where grasses and forbs are
regenerating, " Amundson said. " There's still a lot
of bare ground in areas that burned with higher
intensity, and these areas will take awhile to grow
back. This is especially true in areas that had high
conifer density before the fire because they lacked
understory vegetation to start with. Now that
these areas are cleaned up, there's an opportunity
for grasses and forbs to return. But this will be a
slow process. "
From the ashes
Following the Badger Creek Fire in southeast
Wyoming in 2018, it took about three years for
grasses and forbs to return to some areas. The path
a fire takes as it burns can determine the severity of
damage to vegetation. Backing fires, which burn
down a slope and are slower burning, tend to burn
shrubs into the root crown and kill the plant. A
fire that moves up a slope burns faster and can
leave more of a plant's woody skeleton behind.
This causes less damage to the root crown and
results in better resprouting following a wildfire.
" I like to see shrub skeletons left; it gives me
hope that the fire severity wasn't too high. When it
is table-top flat that tells me it was hot and intense,
and the plant is likely dead, " Amundson said.
Shrub regeneration following a wildfire also
can depend on topography. Amundson said
there has already been some shrub regeneration
on north-facing slopes from the Mullen Fire, but
those areas may not be available to wildlife in
the winter due to high snow depths. Conversely,
Amundson said the more arid, south slopes will
take longer to regenerate due to lack of water and
competition from cheatgrass - an invasive plant
in Wyoming. Because it thrives in disturbed areas,
cheatgrass has already invaded many south-facing
slopes in the Mullen Fire burn area. In response,
more than 9,000 acres was aerially treated with
herbicide to control cheatgrass this summer, and
more acres will be treated in 2022.
An aerial view of the burn area provides wildlife managers with landscape-scale information on the extent and severity
of a fire and allows them to identify areas that will benefit from treatments for invasive cheatgrass. (WGFD photo)
Nonwoody plants like this lupine are often the first plants to reestablish following a wildfire. (WGFD photo)
Wyoming Wildlife | 35

October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2021