FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Picea pungens | Blue Spruce 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Fire kills blue spruce.  Low severity fires will kill saplings and
seedlings [2].  Slow burning of fine fuels will kill the shallow roots
of blue spruce [14].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Blue spruce does not sprout after fire [109].  Rates of establishment
will vary depending on proximity of seed trees and moisture.  Seed must
be transported from off-site.  Blue spruce will establish by
wind-dispersed seed that readily germinates on the mineral soil exposed
by fire.  Small mammals and birds may also carry cones or seeds into a
burn.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Fire is less frequent in montane mixed-conifer forests at lower
elevations where Douglas-fir is dominant with blue spruce than in
ponderosa pine types.  Quaking aspen is seral and present because of
fire in these forests.  Prescribed fire here would increase habitat and
browse for wildlife [108].

Blue spruce is not recommended for fire shelterbelts based on studies in
Victoria, Australia.  Fuel ladders form from persistent dead low
branches [109].

Fuel prediction is difficult because of the large variation in natural
fuel loadings in the forests where blue spruce occurs [101].  Therefore,
Sackett [102] determined average squared diameters and specific
gravities of blue spruce and seven other conifer species in Arizona and
New Mexico.  This established weight and volume of fuels using planar
intersect method.  Greatest accumulations on the mixed-conifer forest
floor come from fermentation and humus layers [43].  One fuel loading
estimate was an average of 44 tons per acre (98 t/ha) [128].

Related categories for Species: Picea pungens | Blue Spruce