Presenter: Dr. Penny Morgan
Contributors:Penelope Morgan, James Riser, Eva Strand and Steve Bunting, University of Idaho, Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences
Emily K. Heyerdahl, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Lab
John Abatzoglou, University of Idaho, Department of Geography
Max Nielsen-Pincus, Portland State University, Department of Environmental Science
Program: Palouse Prairie-Forest Edge: Then and Now
Location: 1912 Center, Great Room, 412 East Third St., Moscow, Idaho.
Dr. Penny Morgan, Professor and Senior Fire Ecologist in the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences at the University of Idaho, and White Pine Chapter member, will present the program. Though wildfires are rare now, they happened every 5 to 8 years in the forests on the edge of the Palouse prairie 1650-1900. From field notes of the land surveyors made in the late 1870s we know the prairie was continuous, likely burned, and likely carried fire from the prairie into the forest. As intensive agriculture replaced prairie, it also replaced many open ponderosa pine forests, and forest patches once had more ponderosa pine than they do now. What are the conservation implications? What can we expect for the future? Understanding the past role of fire here may guide how to live with fire while conserving ecological and social values here and in similar prairie-forest landscapes into the future. on the fire history and ecology of forest edges and forest islands in the Palouse Prairie.