Opportunities for winter prescribed burning in mixed conifer plantations of the Sierra Nevada

Fire Ecology

Table 3 Tree mortality and crown damage reported from plantation burns in the western US. CT commercial thin, PCT pre-commercial thin, PCVS percent crown volume scorch

Spp composition	Stand age (years)	Season of burn	Pre burn treatments	Years until mortality survey	Percent mortality	PCVS (%)
Mixed-conifer¹	35/36	Winter	CT	1	3	25
Mixed-conifer²	12/13	Fall	Mastication	1	6	17
Mixed-conifer³	32	Fall	CT	<1	6	59
P. ponderosa⁴	44/55/62	Spring (2 burns)	CT	17	6	--
P. ponderosa⁵	40	Spring	Mastication	3	7	46
Mixed-conifer²	12/13	Fall	None	1	9	22
P. ponderosa⁶	25	Winter	Mastication + raked	1	17	75
P. ponderosa⁷	52	Summer	None	4	24	--
P. ponderosa⁴	45/55/62	Spring (2 burns)	None	17	24	--
P. ponderosa⁶	25	Winter	Mastication	1	32	74
P. ponderosa /P. menziesii⁷	25-34	Spring	None	<1	34	--
P. ponderosa⁵	40	Spring	Mastication	3	35	58
Mixed-conifer³	22	Fall	None	<1	38	62
Mixed-conifer³	12	Fall	PCT	<1	48	52
Mixed-conifer³	12	Fall	Mastication	<1	48	78
Mixed-conifer²	12/13	Spring	Mastication	1	49	63

¹This study, ²Bellows et al. (2016), ³York et al. (2021), ⁴Busse and Gerrard (2020), ⁵Knapp et al. (2011), ⁶Reiner et al. (2012), ⁷Zhang et al. (2020)