• FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS
• POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:

Fire adaptations: Foliage of big huckleberry is of low flammability. Plants are consumed by fire only when adequate fuels are present to dry and preheat stems and foliage [104]. Big huckleberry usually survives low-severity fire; top-kill results from higher-severity fires. Seed is not an important postfire recolonization method and is rarely found in postfire areas [104]. Top-killed plants typically sprout from rhizomes and the root crown [27,104,136]. 

The clonal habit of big huckleberry favors variation among populations. Plants subjected to regular fire intervals may be better suited to surviving fire than individuals developed under fire suppression [29]. 

Fire ecology: Historically, burning big huckleberry patches was a regular activity of Native Americans in the subalpine zone of the Cascade and Coast ranges. To enhance production, fires were set in autumn after berry harvest. Fires reduced invasion of shrubs and trees [14]. 

Big huckleberry is a seral component in many forest habitat types. Some big huckleberry fields in the Pacific Northwest are considered a product of uncontrolled wildfires occurring before effective fire suppression [109].

Western Montana: Cool habitats dominated by lodgepole pine, with big huckleberry as a plentiful understory species, experienced high-severity, stand-replacing fire at return intervals of 150 to 250 years in past centuries [52]. Lower subalpine stands in the Bitterroot National Forest, including stands in the Douglas-fir/big huckleberry habitat type, beargrass phase, showed mean intervals between surface fires ranging from 17 to 28 years, with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 67 years. At lower elevations, on montane slopes including stands in the Douglas-fir/big huckleberry habitat type, mean fire return intervals ranged from 7 to 19 years with a minimum of 2 and maximum of 48 years [52]. About 60% of mature subalpine fir/beargrass stands in western Montana show evidence of surface fire [5].

Northern Idaho: Dry, lower subalpine fir habitat types where big huckleberry occurs show historic intervals between low- to moderate-severity fires averaging 35 years. Stand-replacing fires occurred at average intervals of greater than 217 years. Severe fires occurred at intervals of 60 to 70 years in cold, dry grand fir habitats where big huckleberry was a dominant species [132].

Mixed-conifer forests of the grand fir series within the Elkhorn Mountains of Oregon showed historic fire return intervals of 50 to 200 years on sites where big huckleberry is the dominant understory species [2]. The Douglas-fir forests of the eastern Cascade Range show longer fire return intervals and higher fire intensities where big huckleberry is present than where big huckleberry does not occur [162].

The following table provides some fire regime intervals where big huckleberry is found:

Community or Ecosystem	Dominant Species	Fire Return Interval Range (years)
silver fir-Douglas-fir	Abies amabilis-Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii	> 200
grand fir	Abies grandis	35-200
western larch	Larix occidentalis	25-100
Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir	Picea engelmannii-Abies lasiocarpa	35 to > 200
whitebark pine*	Pinus albicaulis	50-200
Sierra lodgepole pine*	Pinus contorta var. murrayana	35-200
Pacific ponderosa pine*	Pinus ponderosa var. ponderosa	1-47
Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine*	Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum	2-10
Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir*	Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca	25-100 [18]
coastal Douglas-fir*	Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii	40-240 [13,18,125]
California mixed evergreen	Pseudotsuga menziesii var. m.-Lithocarpus densiflorus-Arbutus m.	< 35
western redcedar-western hemlock	Thuja plicata-Tsuga heterophylla	> 200
western hemlock-Sitka spruce	Tsuga heterophylla-Picea sitchensis	> 200
mountain hemlock*	Tsuga mertensiana	35 to > 200 [18]

*fire return interval varies widely; trends in variation are noted in the species summary

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [149]:

Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil

Related categories for SPECIES: Vaccinium membranaceum | Big Huckleberry