Fig. 4
From: Vegetation type conversion in the US Southwest: frontline observations and management responses
Examples of facilitating change. A Tree mortality of ponderosa pines following two high-severity fire events on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, AZ. This expanding gap is now dominated by forbs and New Mexico locust with no pine regeneration (credit: Chris Marks). B Tree mortality following a multi-year drought in a pre-drought thinned ponderosa pine and black oak stand on the Sierra National Forest, southern Sierra Nevada, California. The foreground illustrates the current open stand conditions dominated by black oak and canyon live oak with an understory of mountain misery (Chamaebatia foliolosa) following the cutting and piling of dead conifers (mostly ponderosa pine and sugar pine). The background shows post-drought stand conditions prior to conifer removal (credit: Marc Meyer)