Modeling Wildfire Spread in Mountain Pine Beetle-Affected Forest Stands, British Columbia, Canada

Fire Ecology

Table 1 Summary of fire observations and stand characteristics classified by monitoring method.

Monitoring method	Observation number	Fire year	Stand composition^a	Canopy height (∼m)^b	MPB attack stages (Overall category)^c	Year(s) since peak MPB^d
Photo interpretation (wildfires)	1	2009	PICO: 80 PIGX 20	18.9	Gy, Gn (Gy)	4 to 5
	2	2009	PICO: 95 PIGX: 5	16.6	Gy (Gy)	3 to 4
	3	2009	PICO: 100	16.1	Gy, R, Gn (Gy)	3 to 4
	4	2008	PICO: 100	16.0	R, Gn (R)^e	2 to 3^e
	5	2004	PICO: 100	19.8	R (R)	1
	6	2008	PICO: 90 ABLA: 10	21.4	Gn, R (R)	1 to 2
	7	2007	PICO: 100	17.7	R (R)	1
	8^†	2006	PICO: 70 PIGX: 30	19.3	R (R)	1
	9^†	2006	PICO: 60 PIGX/ABLA: 40	19.3	R (R)	1
	10	2009	PICO: 90 PIGX: 10	16.9	Gy, R (Gy)	4
	11^‡	2010	PICO: 90 PIGX 10	22.0	Gy (Gy)	5
Direct measurement (wildfires)	12^‡	2010	PICO: 80 PIGX: 20	22.0	Gy (Gy)	5
	13^§	2005	PICO: 100	21.2	R, Gy (R)	1
	14^§	2005	PICO: 100	21.2	R, Gy (R)	1
Experimental burns	15	2006	PICO: 76 ABLA: 12 PIGX: 12	21.7	Gy, R, Gn (R)	1
Experimental burns	16	2006	PICO: 89 PIGX: 9 ABLA: 2	21.7	Gy, R, Gn (R)	1

^a Acronyms designate tree species: PICO = lodgepole pine; ABLA = subalpine fir; PIGX = interior spruce.
^b Average height of canopy, based on estimates from projected forest inventory; see text for details.
^c MPB attack stage category symbols, listed in order of decreasing importance: Gn = green-attack or live green; R = red-attack; Gy = early grey-attack; overall category is based on time since attack—R: 1 yr to 2 yr; Gy: 3 yr to 5 yr.
^d Number of years since peak mountain pine beetle attack in stand, estimated based on aerial detection.
^e Based on estimated peak year of MPB attack, fire observation 4 was on the borderline between red- and early grey-attack categories; it was assigned to the red-attack group based on the visual appearance of the canopy in photographs (abundant red trees still visible).
^{†, ‡, §} Symbols indicate pairs of observations from one single fire event; see text for details.